Daily Score
by AlwaysMoreFun
Summary: Shinpachi sighed staring at the two with exhaustion, "they realise the more they deny it the more suspicious it looks, right?" Soyo giggled behind him, "they don't, nor do they realise that they're not denying it to others they're denying it to themselves." Drabbles set in 3z-verse. Slow Romance. Childhood friends au.
1. 1: Sadist and China

**Hello there!**

 **I've been wanting to do something like this for a while and what better couple than the sadist duo? This is a 3z-verse based setting so some of the ages may be different to canon: Shinpachi, Kagura and Soyo are all older to be in their third year (characters like Sougo and Nobume will just be older by months instead) and Tae is a little older so she isn't the same age as Shinpachi.**

 **Note: Kagura calls Gintoki 'Gin-chan' for a lack of me finding a better replacement in English, Gin sounded too friendish rather than familial and Gintoki of course is too cold so any suggestions let me know!**

 **It's a set of drabbles in chronological order (you probably won't really notice it's moving forward in time until later chapters) based off prompts and I'd say it's fairly in character.**

 **This is inspired by A1y-puff's 'The Walk'**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama nor it's weirdly wonderful characters**

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~~~o~~o~~~

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 **Failure/** **Lesson**

Dust wafted off the whiteboard in the shape of a ominous cloud for the umpteenth time as Kagura scrubbed at the fading white surface. She sneezed as some drifted into her nose and the sudden noise seemed to surprise the other occupant in the room, judging from the loud crash of broom hitting the floor.

"Dammit, China! You scared the shit out of me!" Came Okita Sougo's loud reply as he bent down to retrieve the escaped cleaning utensil.

"I can't help it you brat!" She snapped in reply, wiping her nose with her sleeve, "it's not my fault the rooms as stale as Gin-chan's sex life!"

The flaxen haired man showed no signs that he was listening to the small girl apart from a flicker of amusement in his eyes at her dirty vocabulary.

Kagura returned to scrubbing at the board with the sponge, cursing her fate that she ended up on cleaning duty with the one person she couldn't stand. _Gin-chan why?_ She thought bitterly at her guardian who also happened to be her homeroom teacher. You'd think she'd get some special treatment from the sweet loving man who doubled as her father, but clearly she didn't.

She heard a loud sigh behind her and ignored it. When she heard it again, two, three more times she turned in annoyance demanding, "what?"

Sougo leaned against the broom, hands under his chin, "just wondering what god I pissed off to be stuck here after school with a flat chested China brat."

Kagura's right eye twitched as she hurled a whiteboard marker at the boy, "I'd like to know the same thing! It's not like I wanted to be stuck with you either!"

"Tell Boss to stop putting us in detention then," the man said emotionlessly, dodging the speeding marker as if it was merely a fly, "it's not like we did anything we don't do normally."

She felt irritation bubble up in her, "maybe if you didn't pick fights with me all the time we wouldn't be stuck here!" Kagura yelled venomously.

Sougo simply sighed and said blankly, "that's impossible. Plus, _you're_ the one picking a fight with _me._ "

"Did not!" She snapped back furiously.

"Did too. 'Sadist stop writing so loudly it's annoying'," Sougo mocked in a high pitched voice, "I was simply trying to do my work before I was rudely interrupted by a pig."

Kagura yelled out in frustration and flew across the teachers stand towards the boy, "shut up you annoying brat! You make me sick!"

Sougo grinned as he retaliated towards the girl; soon a full-scale brawl broke out with the two kicking and punching all the while yelling curse words at each other.

It was almost ten minutes later when Gintoki Sakata walked into the room, took in the aftermath and exclaimed, "I put you on detention for fighting in the _first_ place." The two teens looked away sheepishly, not before shooting each other a hard glare. The silver haired man sighed and muttered as he walked back out of the room, "damn kids and their damn hormones never giving me a break."

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Complicated/** **Unbreakable**

"Oi, Sougo, stop making a racket!" Hijikata Toshirou groaned in annoyance as he glared at the two bickering teenagers.

Gintoki sighed next to him wearily, "these kids these days with their fighting and their flirting, back when I was a kid we had to gel our hair to get girls to talk to us!"

The dark haired man stared at his 'friend' with a look of confusion mixed with disgust and replied, "oi, oi, I don't know what girls you were talking to but they probably ran away as soon as your curls escaped the gel."

"What was that?" The white haired man snapped, slamming his fists on the table.

A loud sigh was heard from one Shinpachi Shimura as he cleared the table in the Sakata's kitchen for dinner.

To say their family situation was complicated was an understatement. The fact that Gintoki was their teacher made it much more so. Shinpachi and his sister were practically siblings to Kagura and Gintoki; this had been a fact since she was a child.

She still, however, could not see the necessity of the Gorilla that stalked her big sister, the idiotic mayonnaise lover and the damn Chihuahua. _Especially_ not the Chihuahua.

The fact that they were neighbours with the idiotic Gorilla and Chihuahua probably had something to do with it, and that the mayonnaise king seemed to practically live at their house didn't help.

"Toshi!" Said Gorilla yelled in panic as the dark haired man slammed onto the table the glasses had been trying to clear earlier. This had then resulted in a cry of anguish from the distressed boy at his precious dinner. It only got worse as Tae, Shinpachi's older sister, entered the mix yelling about manners as she smacked the stalker Gorilla, Perm-head and Mayonnaise lover together.

Kagura sighed, shooting a glare at Sougo as he watched the scene in amusement, just another normal day in the Sakata house hold.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Rivalry/** **Vengeance/** **Seeing Red/** **Breakfast**

Sometimes when Kagura fought the Sadist she saw blue. Blue for the bright sky and summer days. Sometimes she saw green, like the colour of the grass as she slammed him into it. Today, however, she only saw red.

Their rivalry had reached an all time high as of late as she sought vengeance for the packet of chips Sougo had stolen from her room a week ago. She wasn't going to forget the wide grin on his face as she shoved the last seaweed flavoured chip into his mouth anytime soon. Not until she literally saw red, like the colour of his blood.

And as she watched the flaxen haired man haired man reach out with his fork and steal the last egg from the communal plate at the breakfast table she knew she wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon.

Not until his blood covered her hands.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Dead Wrong/** **Excuses**

The first time someone had mistaken Sougo and Kagura for a couple they had ended up in the infirmary with multiple bruises and a sprained wrist.

Over time people had gotten the idea and stopped asking the two rivals who seemed to _always_ be together, even before and after school, about their relationship. No, no one wanted to get him or herself beaten up by the school's most notorious sadist accompanied by the volatile girl.

That was until the new student had decided to take his chance hitting on the red haired, but dangerous, beauty.

Kagura had many admirers, but they were only that, _admirers._ If whatever lovesick fool was after the girl's look hadn't been turned off by her personality and vocabulary, they normally stayed a ten-metre radius away from the girl out of fear of a certain sadist. While people didn't _ask_ about the two anymore it didn't mean they didn't _watch_.

"China, stop touching my stuff with your grubby hands." Said sadist grumbled as he leaned back in his chair.

"Shut up, Sadist, I'm trying to find a pencil, mine broke." Kagura grumbled back as she sifted through his pencil case, chair directly beside his.

"Go ask the glasses or the princess, I don't want mine to get diseased."

Kagura ignored his jab and replied shortly, "Shinpachi's late and Soyo doesn't have a spare." She pulled out a pencil and exclaimed, "ah ha! Thanks Chihuahua!"

Sougo went back to ignoring his surrounds, or that's what it seemed until the new boy approached Kagura and said, "hey Kagura!"

Sougo snapped to attention, listening intently on the conversation as the surprised China girl said, "Uh? Who are you?"

The flaxen haired man allowed himself a short moment of smugness before listening in again. It seemed he wasn't the only one as everyone in the vicinity had gone dead quiet as the nervous boy asked the question, "I'm Kou, I just transferred here. I was actually wondering if you maybe wanted to go watch a movie with me this weekend?"

"A movie?" Kagura repeated dumbly.

"Yes! That new _Space Wars_ one everyone keeps talking about!"

A collective breath was held by the class as a pen came flying out of nowhere and hit the shocked girl in the back of the head.

She turned instantly, "what the hell, Sadist?"

He stared ahead nonchalantly, "I just thought a pen would be better for writing calligraphy. Figured your stupid little brain wouldn't have been able to work that out."

"What was that?" She snapped in return, ignoring the flustered boy behind her.

Sougo shrugged, "just trying to do you a favour, don't have to get your panties in a twist China."

Kagura made a move to attack Sougo when the waiting boy interjected, "um, Kagura? Did I make a mistake asking you?" He gestured towards to the boy she was currently holding by the front of his shirt, "I didn't mean to cause a fight with your boyfriend."

Then chaos erupted, "boyfriend?!" The two yelled in sync, equally horrified by the statement.

"Eh, he's not?" Kou asked in confusion, quickly realising he'd stepped on a land mine.

"Who the hell would want to date that annoying brat/flat chested pig?!"

"Um… I'm sorry!" The boy yelled backing up.

"We are _not_ dating!" Kagura emphasised, dropping Sougo and clutching onto the arm of the terrified boy.

"Yes, if I ever date that sorry excuse for a girl please just kill me because I've clearly lost my mind." Sougo deadpanned.

"Oh yeah?" Kagura challenged, "well if _I_ ever date _him_ chop me up and feed me to Sadaharu, uh-huh!"

A fight ensured and the terrified boy was caught up in the midst.

Shinpachi sighed only just entering the room, staring at the two with exhaustion, "they realise the more they deny it the more suspicious it looks, right?"

Soyo giggled behind him, "they don't, nor do they realise that they're not denying it to others they're denying it to _themselves_."

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **Sleep/** **Online**

A very angry red haired girl stalked into Okita Sougo's bedroom; phone in hand as she shoved it into his face. It displayed a very embarrassing picture of said girl sleeping with her mouth open on the couch in the living room of the same apartment.

"What the hell is this?" She demanded, eyes blazing with fury.

The boy took his time examining the picture wordlessly, he studied it as though it was an extremely interesting piece of art before turning to the girl and saying calmly, "I believe, it is a picture of you sleeping on my couch yesterday."

Kagura bristled, " _yes_ ," she said slowly, "but what the _hell_ is it doing on your Facebook?"

"Oh, you saw it did you?" He replied as calm as ever.

"Of course I did you damn brat!" She screeched, thrusting the phone in his face again, "why do you think I'm here?"

"To visit me? You used to come in here to play all the time." The way he dragged out the word 'play' irritated Kagura and she found herself hurling her very expensive very new phone straight into his face.

Sougo let out a yelp of pain as he clutched his face, "what the fuck, China?"

Kagura picked up her beloved phone to find the screen had cracked, "now look what you made me do!"

"Don't blame your anger issues on me!" Sougo shot back, rubbing his bright red cheek.

"Take the damn picture down now!" The red haired girl screamed, waving her fist wildly.

Sougo seemed to consider the order for a moment before deadpanning, "don't want to."

Kagura took a deep breath to regain some composure, "and…" she spat out, "why the hell not?"

"Because I like that picture." Sougo said simply, completely ignoring the bloodthirsty aura coming from the girl.

"Oh, do you just?" She said menacingly, "Well do you know what I like?"

Sougo stared at her blankly, "dog food?"

"Chihuahua head, served on a _platter_."

That was why when Kondou came home two hours later he found the living room in shambles, not to mention Sougo's room, which looked like a bomb had gone off, and two very tired teenagers fast asleep on the boy's bed.

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 **They won't be fighting or hostile towards each other like that every chapter so don't get too used to it :)**

 **Also, just in case you were confused to clarify Gin is Kagura's adopted father who lives next door to Kondou and Sougo. Hijikata doesn't live with those two he just spends a lot of time there hence being included in the little 'family'. Shinpachi and Tae live together somewhere in the neighbourhood and have the same sort of connection to Gin and Kagura as they do in canon verse.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Please shoot me up for a review :))) comments and corrections are welcome!**


	2. 2: Pig Girl and Chihuahua

**Thank you so much for all of the reviews on the first chapter! Once again the 'Sou-kun' is for me having lack of a better way to call him.**

 **Here's part two, enjoy! :)**

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 **Disclaimer: if I owned Gintama everyone would be safe and Gin would be happy**

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Tree/Dare** / **Stay**

When Kagura was ten years old Sougo dared her to climb onto the roof of the old cottage at the end of their street. The kids in the neighbourhood visited the old cottage often and had a strange fascination with the rotting ceiling, shattered windows and moss-covered walls as kids do. While Kagura loved to play around the cottage she had never once considered climbing the rickety old death trap. So when Sougo made the dare she had half a mind to refuse him and tell him to do it but of course that would then imply that she was scared, which she was _not_.

Kagura reached the top of the small building with some help from the eleven-year-old boy accompanying her. She ignored Sougo's taunts and relished in the feeling when her foot connected with his face, and finally made her way atop the structure.

She raised her hands in triumph and smirked at Sougo in victory before she caught sight of the ground. Going as dares often do, Kagura felt her stomach plummet when she saw how far away she was from her precious land, and then she began to cry.

"Gin-chan!" She wailed repeatedly, calling out to her foster father who couldn't hear her as she cursed the sadist for his existence.

Said sadist was on the ground panicking and trying to make the crying stop as he nervously fluttered directly beneath where she was perched. "Come on, China, its not that high!" He tossed a rock up to where she was sitting, "see, you're just being a baby."

Kagura glared at him furiously, "I hate you, I wish you were up here too so I could push you off!"

Sougo growled in return, "fine then! Get down by yourself!"

The boy turned on his heels and began stomping out of the little yard before Kagura yelled out, "wait!"

Sougo froze and turned around cautiously, "what?" He was pouting but Kagura could hardly notice through her terror.

"Don't leave!" She wailed, "I'm scared!"

That was how Sougo found himself sitting underneath a terrified and crying pig girl for two hours as they waited for their guardians to come find them. Eventually they did come and Hijikata bravely scaled his way onto the roof to bring the hand the crying girl down to her foster father.

"Gin-chan!" She cried hysterically, "I was so scared!"

The man patted the girl's head as he tried to soothe her, "it's ok, it's ok!" Gintoki turned to Sougo who was shuffling awkwardly next to his 'big brother' and said, "Thanks for staying with her, Souchirou."

And as Hijikata reprehended the man for getting the boys name wrong once again Sougo felt a flash of pride burst through his chest. The pride grew stronger and was replaced with something like happiness when he caught the eyes of the crying girl and she smiled brightly at him.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Sparkling/Shallow/Fake**

Kagura hated to admit it but as she watched Sougo shake the droplets of water from his glistening hair she couldn't help herself. It was a fact; sometimes the damn sadist just _sparkled_. And not only that he was unnaturally and unfairly good looking for someone with such a shitty personality.

He held his head up to the sun, airing his shirt out to reveal his toned stomach and Kagura inwardly groaned at the scene. He looked like a freaking Abercrombie and Fitch model, what kind of justice was that?

He must've sensed her watching for in the next second his head snapped in her direction. The flaxen haired boy seemed to smirk smugly without even moving his mouth, "what?" He said flatly, "did you fall in love with me or something, China?"

Kagura snorted rather obnoxiously, "if I ever do that please set me on fire."

"Can be arranged." Came the deadpan reply.

The girl lifted her hand and pointed at her companion, "plus, we all know that's what you want to happen."

"Come again? I don't speak moron."

"For me to fall in love with you."

"And why would I want that? Did you finally lose your mind, China? Do I need to go get Boss?"

The boy maintained his emotionless demeanour even as Kagura laughed haughtily and grinned at him slyly, "Because you like me!"

Sougo seemed to consider this for a moment before bending over and dry retching.

"Hey!" Kagura exclaimed, "what are you doing you Chihuahua?"

Sougo simply wiped his mouth as he straightened up, "sorry, I just had a disgusting vision." He shuddered dramatically, "in it there was a pig claiming that I was in love with it or something."

"I said you _like_ me not _love_ me!" Kagura shot back, "and that you exaggerated that just proves that you do uh-huh!"

Sougo gave her a look that seemed to question her sanity as he turned back to the water fountain, sticking his hair under once again.

It was ridiculously hot for spring and the two had been hanging by the fountain in a futile attempt to cool off for the majority off lunchtime.

"Sou-kun!" A pleasant girlish voice called to their right.

The duo turned to see a beautiful girl as she stopped in front of 'Sou-kun' with a bright smile on her face.

"What are you doing after school?" She asked in a sweet voice, shooting a glare at Kagura when Sougo wasn't looking, the scene made Kagura sick.

She was quite used to the Sadist's fan girls, seeing as they were the only idiots brave enough to glare at her let alone threaten her with silly comments like "stay away from Sou-kun, he doesn't like flat chested kids like you." Kagura was all too happy to tell the morons that she would be very happy to stay the hell away from their precious 'Sou-kun' and she didn't give a flying rats arse if he liked the size of her chest.

Still as Kagura heard Sougo reply in an almost, god forbid, _pleasant_ voice she couldn't help but feel disappointed in the boy. For all the shitty things he was: rude, arrogant, annoying, mean, _sadistic_ , she'd never thought he was _shallow._

With all the effort he put into pissing off just about every person he was even remotely close to, he let on a totally different aura when talking to his fans who he truly saw as nothing but mere objects. He was polite, calm and the damn perfect prince all these girls wanted him to be. Not that she couldn't see why, every single one of them was beautiful, bright and had giant boobs as they liked to remind her.

Kagura snorted as the two begin flirting, pouring cold water from her drink bottle down Sougo's neck on her way past them and towards the classroom.

The only sound that could be heard as she sauntered away from the pair was the Sadist's cry of, "Damn you China!"

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Charm** / **Cats**

As Sougo dropped his pen onto the table he let out a sigh of relief, the exams were finally over.

He could hear the incessant chatter of his classmates, ranging from excitement about being finished to groaning about how they were going to fail. He drowned it out finding it all annoying.

A loud cry of "Gin-chan~~~!" Broke him out of his thoughts as he saw the red haired girl dashing towards her foster father in mock tears. "I failed, I definitely failed, herpes me!"

Sougo scoffed at the idiocy and the white haired man said, "it's 'help me' and it's your own fault if you fail. If you hadn't stayed up every single night to play _Neko Atsume_ maybe you would've been more prepared!"

"How cruel! You're the one who made me stay up to feed your cats!" She wailed loudly.

Gintoki scratched his head uncomfortably as the crying girl clung to his arm, "ah, right," he laughed nervously, drowning in obvious guilt, "well I'm sure you're fine. You studied with Pachi boy right?"

"Shinpachi!" She wailed as she detached herself from the relieved man and followed after her surrogate brother as he fled from the classroom.

Sougo watched the idiotic scene with amusement; the trio always had a way of making themselves into an accidental comedy show that Sougo quite enjoyed viewing.

When he picked up his bag a small object fell onto his desk. He picked it up curiously; it was the charm the red headed girl had given him a week prior to the tests.

 _"_ _They said it's supposed to bring bad fortune or failure to whoever holds it so I'm giving it to you!"_

Sougo snorted, as if she could palm off her bad fortune that easily. Still he retrieved the charm and placed it back inside his bag where it had come from. He had a feeling good things would happen if he held onto it.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Tears** **/** **Never Again** / **Shattered**

The shuddering sobs ripped through the girl's body as she curled into herself in the corner of the room. She'd long since given up trying to hide her outburst from her male companion and simply lost herself in the emotions coursing through her body. Normally she worried about losing face in front of the other teen and the fact that she was crying so openly meant she was beyond the point of caring what he thought.

Sougo was at a loss for what to do.

His childhood companion the impenetrable China girl had reduced herself to a sobbing mess on the floor and he couldn't stand to watch any longer.

"What the hell did he do this time?" He asked in a dangerously low voice that caused the girl to cease her crying momentarily to stare at him in worry.

She wiped at the tears furiously and attempted at a smile that just looked utterly pathetic on her red and raw face. "Nothing!" She said hastily in a choked voice, which only served to fuel his fury, "I'm overreacting, really!"

Sougo exhaled slowly, feeling the anger wash over his body, "I'm going to kill him."

"No!" She yelled quickly, lunging for his arm and latching onto his sleeve, "no really, just…" her eyes grew murky as tears filled them once again, "just let me handle this…"

He watched as she slowly slipped to the floor, dragging him down with her, and collapsed in upon herself again, "just… don't make him hate me anymore than he already does…"

If there was one person Kagura loved enough to reduce her proud self to begging in front of Sougo of all people it was her brother. And if there was one person Sougo hated on this entire planet more than he hated himself it was Kamui, Kagura's older brother. It took everything in him not to storm out the door, hunt down the fool and end his rotten existence. The only thing keeping him in place was the crumpled China girl clutching his sleeve like it was the only thing keeping her afloat, maybe it was.

So instead of acting upon his true desires he simply sighed, settled down, and pulled the crying girl against his chest.

In this situation the girl would simply cry herself to sleep and Sougo would hold her until she did so, and neither of them would speak of this in the morning.

He knew one thing for sure; never again did he ever want to see her cry over her arsehole of a big brother.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Movie/Quality time** / **Emotional**

"Wildcats!" Kagura yelled exuberantly along with the team on the scream.

"Shut it, China." Sougo ground out to her right, "as if this movie isn't bad enough without your damn commentating."

"What was that you unappreciative Sadist?" The girl asked in an offended tone.

"Just saying tha-"

A very weary Shinpachi cut off the boy, "would you two stop fighting!" He groaned, "this is the champion ship game dammit!" The glasses wearing teen had finally snapped, sitting between the two rivals as a mediator had clearly worn on his patience and he was fed up.

The rivals continued to glare at each other but shut up per Shinpachi's request, allowing the boy to enjoy his movie in peace.

The three were the last awake to enjoy the final movie of the trilogy as their so-called 'guardian's' had fallen asleep some time during the second movie and were currently sprawled out on the floor in obviously uncomfortable positions.

Sougo snorted, if the two idiots hadn't gotten so emotional when the idiot of a male lead had chased off his girlfriend in the second movie maybe they would've stayed awake. He didn't understand why he had to sing at her to stay though, or why they had to sing all the damn time in general.

Kagura and Shinpachi cheered when the scrawny freshman scored the winning point, throwing their hands up in excitement. Sougo rolled his eyes, the only reason he was watching this godforsaken series was as per the Boss's request. He'd said it was the ten-year anniversary and the entire 'family' had to watch it to spend quality time together or some shit. Somehow that didn't seem to include the glasses' gorilla of a sister who was out with a friend or his own gorilla of a guardian whom was still at work. He wished he could be as lucky as those idiots even though they appeared to think they were _unlucky_ to miss this marathon.

As the China girl's obnoxious laughter could be heard to his left he felt the last of his patience snap and he uttered, "this entire movie is more stupid than you are pig girl."

Shinpachi's eyes grew wide in panic as said pig girl turned towards the flaxen haired man slowly, spitting out darkly, "insulting me is one thing, but insulting the Wildcats is something I will not stand for!"

With this all hell broke loose as Kagura flung herself in the direction of Sougo, eyes wild and hands clawing.

Sougo finally felt his boredom fade as the girl grabbed and clawed at his face and clothing. Shinpachi, caught in the cross fire, suddenly screamed in frustration, scaring the two sleeping adults awake, and pushed Kagura off him to stand up sharply and yell, "that is _it_! I've _had_ it! I'm going to _bed!_ "

The two groggy adults and wound up teenagers watched as the glasses boy stormed out the room muttering darkly about how he hated being the only sane one in the neighbourhood.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Please review and make my day!**


	3. 3: Brat and Flat Chest

**Hey Hey! These are fun to write so I'm smashing them out at a good rate :)**

 **Thanks again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and I hope you continue to enjoy this story :) It's starting to get a little more towards the serious parts and you'll be able to notice the flow of time soon (next chapter definitely)**

 **So, enjoy!**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own the beauty that is Okikagu**

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Grown Up**

Sougo had always enjoyed sparring and fighting with the feisty China girl from next door. She was the only one who could match him in terms of temper and agility, to say she was entertaining was an understatement. So when Kagura came knocking for a fight with her loud voice and terrible attitude, who was Sougo to reject her?

The only problem was in the recent weeks Sougo had begun to notice that she wasn't the little China girl anymore, _no_ , she was a China _woman_.

This would've been fine if only the flat chested little brat wasn't so flat chested anymore; hell he'd even caught her virgin of a 'brother' staring at her knockers on the odd occasion. Not only that but she appeared to refuse to get new clothes that actually accommodated for her newly developed curves and swells, so her old shirts clung uncomfortably tight to her body.

He supposed, however, that her newly grown up body wasn't so bad as she gripped his head in a tight lock against her chest. No, he thought, if it wasn't for the humiliation and taunts from the girl that followed the fact, he could actually begin to enjoy losing.

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **Running Away** / **Play**

Limbs were flying everywhere as the red headed girl viciously fought for her dignity against her classmates. How the female population of class 1z had ended up in an all out brawl was due to said red headed girl's inability to take any form of teasing.

"Kagura!" The glasses wearing teen wailed as he tried to pry the furious red head off of another girl who she was currently gnawing on. "Stop it! You can't bite people!"

"Let me go, Shinpachi!" She screamed in return, throwing herself against his hold, "I have to kill them all!"

The reason she had lost her sense of reason this time was currently sitting in the corner with a dazed look and muttering, "I kissed a pig" repeatedly.

For the school festival the class had decided to put on a show of the play _Romeo & Juliet._ The parts were decided through a vote while their teacher was out of the room and whether it was due to coincidence, the classes sick sense of humour, or the poor fools were just sick of the two running away from their twisted relationship, the parts of the two love interests had gone to Sougo and Kagura. This, of course, had caused them to explode with fury.

"No way in _hell_ am I pretending to be in love with that brat!" Kagura had shouted, pointing accusingly at Sougo.

"I think I'm going to be sick." The flaxen haired boy had said in return, momentarily breaking his deadpan façade in favour of disgust.

"Come on, Kagura, anyone would be happy to play Sou-kun's girlfriend, be thankful for once." A girl, clearly part of Sougo's fanclub, had said bitterly.

Kagura shot back hotly, "why don't you play the idiot's girlfriend then?"

The other girl glared, "we were doing you a favour we all know you like him."

Everyone stopped to stare at the frozen red headed girl who was unnaturally silent. She finally spat out, "what was that?"

Another girl laughed sarcastically to Kagura's left, "it's so obvious, you've been lusting over him for years while pretending to hate him."

Kagura was close to losing it when Soyo stepped in saying, "Kagura-chan don't worry about them!"

However, as Soyo tried to soothe the fuming girl Nobume had pushed Sougo towards Kagura and shouted, "do something you damn idiot!" which had resulted in the boy losing his balance and slamming straight into the angry girl. This would've been fine apart from the fact that his lips had collided with Kagura's in the process. Once this happened there was no going back and Kagura immediately flung herself at the first snarky girl, Nobume diving in to back up her friend as an all out brawl ensued. Sougo had immediately frozen in place, apparently too shocked by the previous action to do anything but stand there stupidly as all hell broke lose.

The boys were betting on who would win the fight, Shinpachi and Soyo were trying to stop their volatile friend from murdering someone, Nobume seemed to be enjoying the brawl, Sougo looked absolutely pathetic and everyone else looked just plain tired.

It wasn't until one broken arm, three broken fingers, a dislocated shoulder and countless scratches, bruises and bite marks later that Mr. Zenzou came back to break up the fight. The news of the brawl spread through out the school and an unspoken rule was founded to never mess with Kagura again as she walked away from the brutal fight completely unscathed.

So when Gintoki wrote on the board that they had to pick something to do for the school festival in their third year, the class unanimously voted to do a stall in favour of a show.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Ring/Gift**

The sky had turned a rich shade of orange by the time Sougo and Kagura exited the arcade. Somehow an argument between the two about who had better aim had turned into a three-hour competition on the mini basketball hoop machine in the arcade by the school. Initially they'd had a crowd to watch the legendary rivals go at it but after six games the excitement had worn off until there was only Shinpachi still watching, although he'd left almost an hour ago to cook dinner before Tae could get to it.

It wasn't until six-thirty that Kagura had finally admitted defeat if the Sadist gave her a gift in return. So now they were standing outside the arcade as Sougo put coins into the ball machine by the doors.

He told her she had to be happy with whatever came out because he wasn't going to spend more money than necessary on the girl. A sentence he immediately regretted as what came out was a plastic mock of an engagement ring. He debated presenting it to his female companion but such hesitation was unnecessary as she stole it from his grip immediately.

"What is it what is it?" She asked excitedly as she cracked the small ball open. The pink ring fell into her palm and Sougo watched as she examined it with a frown. "A ring?" She asked absently.

Sougo waited for the insult or the cry of "gross!" or something along those lines but all he got instead was a small smile as the girl slipped the flashy ring onto her left middle finger.

"Huh, not bad Sadist." She seemed pleased with her prize as she retrieved her bag and made her way home.

Sougo stared after the girl in amazement before finding himself holding his sides as he laughed loudly.

"What?" Kagura asked in confusion, irritation seeping into her voice.

Sougo calmed himself before forcing out, "nothing, nothing." He stood and rubbed Kagura's hair with his free hand, "absolutely nothing, China Girl."

"You're such a freak." Kagura spat as she watched the boy walk away, returning her gaze back to her ring once more.

 _Wonder what my real one will look like._

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Fluffy**

"Leader you must pick this one!" Kotarou Katsura said pointing at a small black dog, "he's got the best paws I've seen so far!"

Kagura had asked her Uncle Zura to come help her pick a dog as the man had an insane love for animals that rivalled even Steve Irwin's.

"Zura I told you those ones aren't fluffy enough!" The young red headed girl muttered exasperatedly, distracted by a large dog pawing at her thighs.

She heard the man mutter something that sounded suspiciously like "its Katsura not Zura" but ignored the statement. He said it often enough for it to be his catch phrase, it wasn't her fault Gin-chan had only ever mentioned the man as 'Zura' since she was small. She didn't remember when she'd first met the man but he'd been a constant presence in her life since she was little as he was her foster father's best friend or childhood neighbour or long time leach infestation or something.

A small yapping caught her attention and she found herself face to face with a pure ball of white fluff. It was love at first sight as she looked into the black eyes of the enormous white dog; he was fluffy and large enough to be her bed.

"Zura," she said fiercely, "this one, this is the one."

And if she didn't love the dog enough already when she came home with him in her tight grip two hours later and the dog immediately jumped on to a very surprised Sougo Okita, knocking him flat to the ground, she did then.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Obsession** / **Burning** / **Troubling Thoughts** / **Possession**

Sougo was quickly forming an obsession with the China Girl and he knew it. Ok, well maybe 'forming' wasn't quite right word as the boy had been slightly obsessed with the younger girl since he'd seen her throw a high school boy into the river when they were thirteen years old. It was just, lately the obsession had been getting out of control and whenever he saw her this burning feeling erupted in his chest that could only be eased through her presence. That's why he'd started doing anything to get her attention whether it was good or bad, and it was mostly bad, just to stop the damn burning in his rib cage. It used to be enough just to be near her, or to hear her screaming profanities in his face, or even earning a kick to the stomach. Now, however, he couldn't settle down until he physically felt some part of her body touch his, the fire in his lungs would keep spreading until she literally stood on his chest to put it out.

He didn't know what was wrong with him; he was a sadist everyone knew that so when had he become such a damned glutton for punishment for this girl?

He'd done everything in his power to make it go away. He'd dated the countless girls who threw themselves at him, becoming the controlling partner they all seemed to want. He'd let any girl who came knocking ask their desires of him and he'd answered with vigour. He'd accepted many girls who gave themselves to him, so why was it that just one touch from the idiot pig girl made his heart do disgusting flip flops. It was even worse that his entire mood could depend on the girl as well. If she ignored him or was upset with him seriously he couldn't do anything right; losing his temper at the smallest things and wallowing in misery all day. If she was depressed or sad he would fret around her until he found a way to ease her sadness. If she was happy or excited he relished the childish look of joy on her face. And if she smiled at him, well, rather than a simple burning in his chest his entire soul was alight. It was as though he existed entirely through her and he hated nothing in this entire world more than that fact.

He didn't want to think about what any of this meant, he preferred to focus on how annoying and gross she looked with food falling out of her open mouth rather than how pretty she looked when she laughed two seconds later at Soyo's joke. He wouldn't stop until he found a way to free himself from the burning sensation caused by the girl or somehow found a way to make her feel the same. Meaning, he'd find a way to make the girl _his_ possession, rather than him just being completely in the palm of her hand.

But for now he'd just keep the troubling thoughts to himself.

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Sougo is gross damn.**

 **Please hit up that review button ^^^ on your way out :))))**


	4. 4: Little Brother and Little Sister

**Hey Ho!**

 **So thank you all so much for your reviews they give me the energy to keep writing! (honestly though whenever I wanna stop writing I read them and keep going they give me life)**

 **Please enjoy chapter four you should definitely notice time moving forward now and I apologise for any OOC Kagura or more likely Sougo because this is building on from what I've already established about them in the previous chapters! I've tried my best to keep them in character considering the circumstances!**

 **Enjoy!**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Gorilla's trash pile**

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.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Party** / **Exhaustion** / **Pretence of Innocence**

Kagura shuffled awkwardly in the corner of the bustling room filled with poised and prim upper class civilians. To say she felt out of place was an understatement.

There was an event Kagura dreaded every single year, ironically enough it was her best friend's annual birthday party. She loved Soyo with her entire heart she really did but nothing in the whole world could make her love those stupid parties Soyo's doting older brother threw her every year. The guest list was always the rich, snooty, upper class people who were related to her families business. The people were important and busy and just so damn _glamorous;_ not to mention rude as all hell, it was honestly exhausting.

She, as Soyo's best friend, had been forced to attend the extravagant event since their first meeting in middle school. The only other people who got that honour were her family – Gintoki, Shinpachi and Tae – Nobume and her father, and the Gorilla and by extension his family. Meaning that every single year she was forced to spend at least two hours playing nice with her eternal rival while trying not to embarrass Soyo.

She looked around hopelessly; Soyo was caught up in conversation with her brother and a man who appeared to be her first year teacher, Hattori Zenzou, and a woman with odd purple hair. Nobume was hovering nervously around her idiot of a guardian, watching as he piled what appeared to be donuts high onto his plate. Her foster father was making conversation with another female teacher from her school the one with the odd scar. She had lost sight of Shinpachi, the Mayonnaise king and the Gorilla over an hour ago.

"Contemplating your lack of class, China?" The only person she knew available had apparently decided it was high time he came to annoy her.

She scowled at his impassive face, "no, I was contem… conte… contepele… thinking about how you have no friends, uh-huh!"

Sougo snorted, at her stumbling over the foreign word most likely, "are you sure you're not talking about yourself, idiot girl?"

Kagura rolled her eyes, not wanting to make a fuss and disturb Soyo's partygoers. She had no idea how much stock Soyo held in these high-class yahoos but she didn't want to offend her friend's guests if possible. The likeliness of that not happening dropped significantly when she came into contact with the sadist.

Sougo seemed to pick up on her resistance to fight for her amped up his annoyance levels, "finally decided to start acting like a girl?" _Ignore him, ignore him, he's just random trash,_ "you might want to do something about that flat chest before you fix your manners."

Kagura's eye twitched viciously as she tried her hardest to ignore the idiot. She hated how he made it his mission every single year to make it hard for her as possible to maintain her composure and keep her pretence of Soyo's innocent best friend. It was difficult considering all she wanted to do at that moment was slam the idiot's head through the nearest hard surface.

There was no stopping the sadist as he rattled off insults and eventually she snapped, "would you" she seethed through clenched teeth, "shut the _hell_ up."

Sougo seemed to consider for a moment before deadpanning, "no."

Kagura sent a quick mental apology to Soyo before she grabbed the sadist by the shirtfront and slammed him into the wall behind them.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Frighten/Brave**

There were only two things in the entire world that frightened Kagura.

The first was being alone again. Waking up one day and finding the people she loved and knew and the new life she'd made for herself to be just gone. That scared her beyond belief.

The second was her brother. She wasn't sure what it was about her brother that terrified her senseless, whether it was his ruthless nature and the threat that he may hurt her or her loved ones, or the fact that he may end up hurting himself through all of the fighting and effort he put into separating himself from his own emotions. A part of her knew that those things, while they did frighten her, weren't the reason she stayed up at night fearing the boy. No, what frightened her the most about her brother was the possibility that _she_ didn't frighten him at all. That her absence from his life meant nothing to him and that she was nothing to him. That was what truly frightened her.

But right now that wasn't why she was scared of or for her brother, she was simply scared for the boy engaged in combat with him.

"Sadist stop!" She screamed in a voice that was too high pitched to simply be demanding. The panic was seeping through as she watched the flaxen haired boy slam his fist into her older brothers face, the sickening _crunch_ resounding in her ears all the while.

The red headed male laughed in a depraved manor as he brought his foot up to slam it into Sougo's stomach. "You've got guts" he admitted, manic grin still in place, "too bad I'm crushing them."

Sougo grunted as he caught his footing, he spat blood and laughed flatly, "thanks, I bet you've got nice ones too." He flung his arm out and it connected with the other boy's stomach, "I'd love to see what they look like on the outside."

The fight went on and on with Kagura yelling profanities at the two idiots to stop, how the hell this had even happened she didn't know. One minute she was frozen in shock at the sight of her older brother outside her school gates, he went to the boy's school on the other side of town, the one for teenage delinquents and low life's. Upon her initial shock a small part of her hoped he was here to see _her_ but he'd simply overlooked her as though she was nothing until his eyes rested upon the confused girl next to her. A grin had then spread across his face, "found ya."

A shiver had run down her spine as her brother eyed her best friend with malicious glee then almost immediately Sougo appeared as though out of thin air. "What the hell do _you_ want?"

Kamui had regarded him curiously before his face lit up in recognition, "I know you!" It was then he finally acknowledged Kagura's existence, "you're my weakling sister's friend!"

If Sougo was affected by the comment he didn't show it, "I asked what you wanted."

The older sibling smiled slowly focusing his azure eyes on the flaxen haired boy, "I'm here to take Soyo Tokugawa."

Sougo seemed to smile then, "sure," he deadpanned, "if you can get through me first."

Kamui didn't respond instead choosing to simply throw himself at the other boy with a cry of glee.

The fight continued on and on with the students gathering to watch the spectacle. Kagura was growing more desperate by the minute, fighting the urge to throw herself in the midst of the vicious brawl, the terrified sobs of her best friend stopping her from doing so.

Kagura picked up a near by rock and flung it at the two boys praying to god it hit her brother instead of the sadist for once. She was right on target as the rock rebounded off her brother's outstretched arm with a loud _crack_. He turned his head slowly towards his sister, "you wanna join little sister?"

The girl straightened her back and stared her brother dead in the eyes " _leave_ Kamui! Get out of here you're not getting Soyo-chan!"

"China…" Sougo heaved, clutching his right side in agony.

"Are you going to stop me?" Kamui seemed to insinuate that this was ridiculous.

"If that's what it takes, uh-huh!" She was gaining confidence, putting up a bravado of strength in attempt to fool herself into believing she was strong rather than fooling others.

Kamui regarded her with half lidded eyes for a moment before dismissing her sharply, "I don't waste my time on weaklings."

Kagura felt as though she'd taken a bullet to the chest as the words left her older brother's mouth and soon after she heard the sounds of teachers breaking up the violent fight occurring between the two boys.

Her gaze rested upon her brother as teachers, probably taking him to the police, escorted him out of the school grounds. She couldn't take her eyes off of his retreating form for what felt like hours until she heard a voice call out, "China!"

Her eyes immediately found Sougo, much in the same situation as her brother with teachers holding both of his arms. His gaze was unreadable and hard as he stared her in the face, "He doesn't know shit." He stated simply but with enough force to get the message across.

She found herself smiling wryly at the bloodied boy, speaking as clearly as she could as the boy was escorted away, "you look like hell, Sadist."

She couldn't see the smile that graced the beaten boy as he ducked his head into the police car.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Faith** / **Friendship/Tender**

Hijikata tapped his foot restlessly on the sterile floors of the police station. Kagura had passed the point of irritation at the agitated gesture and had moved to numb indifference, counting the furious taps passed the time at least.

It was ten minutes later that Kondou finally emerged from the white door leading to the cells followed closely by a black and blue Sougo.

Hijikata leapt up immediately and rushed urgently to his 'younger brother's' side, "what the hell are you thinking you dumbass?" He demanded in a voice that was too frantic to hide his concern, "did you even think about how this could affect Kondou and I?"

The boy looked up at the black-headed man with a look of distain, "I could care less how it affects you, die stupid Hijikata."

Hijikata was about to flip when Kondou raised his hands in a peacemaking gesture, "now, now, Toshi, he's just a bit tired."

"I bet he is, he got the shit beaten out of him." Hijikata mumbled bitterly, "whatever I'll see you tomorrow." He said bluntly as he swept down the long corridor.

Kondou rubbed the back of his head, "I've got some papers I've gotta go sign, just because I'm chief of police doesn't mean you get off sorry to say." The man who acted as Sougo's father then noticed the girl silently watching them, "ah, I'll see you out the front." He said awkwardly as he quickly followed after his little 'brother'.

Sougo fixed his blood red eyes on Kagura with a vacant look, "China." He greeted flatly.

Kagura grimaced, "you're a bloody idiot." She spat defensively, "I hope you get put on parole for twenty years or something."

Sougo shrugged, "more like three weeks of community service but thanks for the concern."

The red headed girl moved closer to the boy until she was standing directly before him. She slowly brought her hand to his exposed collarbone, it was dark purple and swollen to twice it's usual size. She pressed her hand harshly into the wound and a sharp hiss escaped Sougo's teeth.

"You deserve this." She said bluntly, moving her hand to his limp left hand, pressing roughly, "and this." She lifted her hand to his bruised jaw, "and this," then up his swollen cheek, "this too," before finally resting it upon his bluing right eye, "this also."

He stared at her through blank eyes, watching her movement as she put pressure upon his injuries. "I think the black eye actually looks good."

Kagura laughed curtly, "You're a goddamn idiot."

"I know."

The silence stretched out for a few moments, Kagura digging her fingers into the red cut on his cheekbone. She wasn't so much as relieved he wasn't hurt more that she was angry he'd sustained this many injuries. She had faith in Sougo, as grudging as it was, and she just hated that it led him to this state. Even if others didn't seem to understand what made the strange friendship between the two work they both did at the very least, it was the unshakable faith they had in one another. Faith in Sougo's ability to walk away from a fight with her psychotic brother in one piece and faith in her capacity to forgive him for hurting her precious family. The air surrounding them as they stood in comfortable silence was calming until the slamming of a door somewhere down the hall broke it.

They both turned their heads to find a very familiar red head regarding them with a look of contempt, "if you're going to flirt with my sister at least do it somewhere private for fucks sake."

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Patience/Summer Haze**

Sougo liked to think of himself as a patient man. He could watch a child fighting a losing battle with a big without batting an eyelid (more like crushing the bug with his fist as he walked past). He could watch idly as a woman chased a man down the street making an irritating racket (he would trip the man and let the fuming woman catch him). But it tested his patience each and every time he watched the China girl eat ice cream on the old bench in the park. Watching the girl eat the blasted thing with slow, agonising licks drove the boy as crazy as the summer haze did. He wanted nothing more than the grab the stupid thing, cram it down her throat, and be free of the odd intimate food porn.

He did just that and felt a spark of amusement as he watched the idiotic red headed girl choke dramatically on her now demolished ice cream.

"What the hell Sadist?" She wailed furiously.

He simply shrugged, "you looked like you were molesting that poor ice cream so I helped end it's suffering."

That was how Sougo escaped the madness of the summer haze and managed to retain what was left of his stretched patience all the while running away from a dehydrated China brat.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Death/Seeking Solace** / **Picking up the Pieces** / **Forgotten** / **Breaking Away** / **Lost and Found**

Dark grey clouds loomed threateningly in the sky over the eerie cemetery, the cold winter air swallowing up any living being in the vicinity.

Sougo barely noticed the stinging in his cheeks or loss of feeling in his fingers for he was entirely focused on the smooth stone before him.

 _Mitsuba Okita_. It read the name carved with giant block letters making it impossible to miss the words.

It had been three years since Sougo's older sister had left the world, it was also the first time he'd come here with company. The damn bane of his existence stood behind him silently, smelling faintly of the cancer sticks he smoked daily, his shivering heard over the howling wind. Another man was there too; silver hair blowing softly as he observed the scene morbidly. There was an unexpected visitor too, the China Girl herself. He wasn't sure what she was doing there but he didn't have it in him to question the presence, today he was too numb to question anything.

Kagura shuffled awkwardly next to her foster father, fighting the urge to shiver from the cold air. She had no idea why she was here, it felt like she was intruding on an extremely private moment, which she literally was but he'd insisted she be there. _She was old enough now_ he'd said _she should know the woman who was Sougo's older sister._

Minutes pass in silence before Kagura finds herself sitting on the cool earth a little ways out of ear shot of the two men drinking in front of the tombstone haughtily. The scene confuses and intrigues her and she finds herself unable to comprehend the deep sadness and cutting emotions present on the dark haired mans face as he drinks with her significantly less sad father.

She doesn't realise someone is sitting beside her until a flat voice breaks her out of her trance, "he loved her you know." Sougo says numbly.

"Who?" Kagura asks in confusion, absently noting how the Sadist's hair looks flatter than usual and that his usually brilliant red eyes seem colourless and empty.

He continues to stare at the two older men, "stupid Hijikata." He continues but with a hint of bitterness this time, "he loved her and she loved him."

Kagura isn't sure how to react to the information or how Sougo wants her to react more specifically so she just mutters, "oh…"

"That's why I hate him." Sougo says vacantly and they fall into a tense silence for a while before the flaxen haired boy speaks again more meekly than she's ever heard him, "I was such a brat when she was… still here." Kagura notices the way his voice strains over the last words, "I was scared she'd leave me for him, that she was breaking away from me for him." He didn't elaborate on who 'him' was and he didn't need to, "she was all I had left."

The lapse into silence once again, Sougo apparently done and Kagura completely at loss for what to say.

This doesn't last long as Sougo mutters to himself it appears, "now I'm scared that _I'll_ be the one to forget her." He laughed bitterly, looking at Kagura but not really _seeing_ , "the way she laughed. The way she smiled. The way she looked when she was angry. The way her awful spicy food tasted. I'd give anything to eat that tongue abusing rice again."

Kagura regards him carefully before saying absently, "honestly, she's probably happy to finally get away from your shitty attitude."

If Sougo was surprised at getting a reply he didn't show it for he merely laughed weakly.

"Plus," the girl continues, "She wouldn't have left if she didn't think you could take care of yourself."

The look of confusion upon Sougo's face was evident as he stared at her, she continued, "it's the same with Mami. She only left me because she knew I could take care of myself."

Sougo stares at her a moment longer before saying bluntly, "you're an idiot."

Kagura bares her teeth, "it's fine." She says oddly cheerfully, "we've got ourselves! We'll be fine!" She fixes him with a hard look, one he can't find it in himself to turn away from, "you won't forget her, it's impossible. Just like she wouldn't ever forget anyone as annoying as you! No matter how much you want to forget your sibling you just can't, they're with you forever, uh-huh!"

Sougo knew she spoke the last part from experience and instead of feeling annoyance or anger at the mentioning of her psychopathic brother he felt something akin to _relief_ instead. Sougo had been rolling around in the broken pieces of his heart for years, making do with the shattered remains of his once whole organ and all of a sudden he felt the entity slowly come back together and mend with every harsh word the girl uttered. The realisation amuses him more than it should and he finds himself staring at the girl in awe, he was seeking _solace_ in the moronic China brat. He almost laughs out loud at the sentiment but stops himself because if his dear sister taught him anything while she was around it was that anything was possible. Even if that meant the lost pieces of his bruised and broken heart could be found with just a little searching and an obnoxious China girl.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

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 **How as it?**

 **Please hit me up and let me know what you thought! I love reading your reviews!**

 **See you next time!**

 **Thanks for reading :)**


	5. 5: Kagura-chan and Sou-kun

**Heyo everyone!**

 **Sorry it's been like two weeks since I updated but I haven't really been home much hope this long chapter makes up for it! I'm starting uni next week so I will only write when I get time but I'll try my best to update every two weeks!**

 **Thanks so much for the continued support and reviews they really motivate me, hope you enjoy this chapter! Things are starting to get more serious and you'll definitely be able to notice the difference in behaviour of the two and hopefully it's not too OOC!**

 **Enjoy!**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own the two sadistic kids nor their dumb relationship**

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.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Tree/Balloon/Kid/Cool**

"Shinpachiiiiiii!" The red headed girl wailed looking frantically for her foster brother, "where are you?"

She heard a snort beside her and turned to face her companion with a scowl, "he probably ran away from your annoying voice, China."

"Shut it, Sadist!" She quipped returning to her search for the other boy.

The three of them had walked home from school together as their neighbourhood 'family' had requested they be at the Shimura's house as quickly as possible. It was a rare occasion that normally ended with the rivals in a brutal fight or Shinpachi being injured in some way. It appeared today, however, the glasses boy had simply just called it quits and legged it away from the bickering duo.

Sougo sighed, "who even cares, China, we know where his house is let's just go."

"But I don't want to be stuck with you alone for that long!" Kagura whined in return, "I'll catch your stupidity, uh-huh!"

Sougo snorted in a way that seemed to imply that was impossible and Kagura seethed.

As they were about to break into argument a loud cry broke them out of their heated glaring contest.

"My balloon!" A cry was heard and the two turned their heads to see a small child wailing underneath a tree that their balloon had been caught in.

The teens stared at the scene for a moment before Sougo muttered, "not my problem" and continued walking home.

Kagura felt anger rise in her, "you're such an awful person, Sadist!" She snapped walking towards the child. She bent down in front of the crying boy and held her hands up in a calming gesture, "is that your balloon?" She asked.

The boy nodded and Kagura stood up abruptly, "leave it to Big Sister," Sougo snorted from his viewpoint, "I'll get your balloon back!"

The red headed girl then proceeded to attempt to scale the tree, scratching her limbs on branches and yelping out curse words as she went. Sougo stood under the tree and viewed the scene with the young boy who was watching with a strange mix of fascination and horror, probably wondering if he was going to see his first death.

Moments later a loud _snap_ was heard and a body came hurtling down the tree at an alarming rate. Sougo watched calmly as Kagura slammed onto the grass beside him and swore loudly. The boy fretted around the girl and a few seconds later she burst into obnoxious tears, "my arm! My _arm!_ Herpes me!"

The older boy sighed loudly, gaining the attention of the glaring China girl and the young boy, and walked towards the pair. Kagura regarded him with a look of contempt, wondering if he was going to start making fun of her, but he simply placed his hand on the small boy's head for a moment before leaping onto the tree. He scaled the tree easily and not a minute had passed before he landed gracefully in front of them balloon in hand.

The small boy squealed in delight as he took the balloon from the older boy exclaiming, "thank you so much Mister!"

Sougo nodded impassively, watching the young boy scurry off quickly with his newly returned balloon. He then turned his attention to the girl on the ground nursing her bleeding elbow, "looks like pigs can't climb trees."

Kagura growled at his nonchalant expression and raised her chin in dismissal, "but Chihuahua's can easily, uh-huh!"

"Of course," the deadpan answer came, "only an idiot falls out of a tree."

"I hope a giant tree falls on you and squishes you!"

"That won't happen."

Kagura was becoming quickly annoyed by his arrogant demeanour, how he managed to appear smug even while speaking in a monotone was impossible to her, "I'll cut one down so it does!"

"That's murder, China."

"Like you've ever had a probl-"

Her sentence was cut off abruptly as the older boy bent down and hauled her injured form over his shoulder.

"Let me down!" She yelled kicking her legs at his torso, "this is rape, Sadist!"

Sougo ignored her protests and simply continued home, "you mean harassment."

"Herpes me!"

"Seriously, when are you ever going to get that right?" Sougo muttered tiredly, "you're leg's bleeding it would've taken us forever if you walked." He said simply and Kagura fell silent, she didn't think he'd noticed her bleeding knee or how it ached.

As the two made their way home with Sougo carrying an agitated Kagura the girl admitted to herself grudgingly – sometimes, when he wasn't tormenting her, the Sadist could be cool.

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **Dreamer** / **At Peace**

Sometimes when they sky had faded to orange and the world was all but still apart from the subtle breeze that helped the clouds roll lazily into the horizon Kagura liked to dream.

And sometimes when the obnoxious China girl rested there with her long red hair flowing quietly in the warm breeze, looking almost ethereal all porcelain skin and wide azure eyes, Sougo liked to watch her.

The irritable boy never felt more at peace as when he watched the restless girl become lost in her daydreams.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Doll** / **Grief**

Kagura vaguely remembered the beautiful woman who was her rival's older sister. A tall woman with red eyes and flaxen hair much like her younger brother's was all Kagura could recall of the other woman. However, whenever she caught sight of the doll the woman had given her upon her tenth birthday she remembered more. A pleasant laugh, a calming feeling that accompanied her voice, a kind smile – these were the only times Kagura found herself missing the older woman she barely knew.

It wasn't long after her birthday that Mitsuba fell sick and was sent off to a special hospital in a far away place. She remembered how her foster father had left the house only to return with the Mayonnaise king minutes later. The two had stood out on their tiny balcony in silence for hours on end, Kagura all the while too young to understand when the black haired man's shoulders had begun to shake and the silent hand her father had rested on his back. She'd been too young and sheltered to understand why her rival had been so unresponsive and depressed for days afterwards as well. She'd only been annoyed that she had to play alone while she waited for Shinpachi to come over. Every time she saw that doll – clean, beautiful face, carefully crafted clothing and blond curly hair – she felt the silent wave of grief consume her and she felt indescribable sympathy for her rival that must've experienced it a hundred times worse every single day since she left.

She handled the doll with soft hands and could practically hear the ghost of the woman whose feelings it contained saying to her, "please protect him, my precious younger brother."

She squeezed the doll tightly to her chest as she promised to try.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Game/** **School** **/Separation**

Sometimes Kagura wondered if their entire relationship was just a game to him. She could never understand if she was a friend, family member, or simply just a toy to him. Some days he made her believe she was an important fixture in his life – something she didn't know how to feel about – and other times he made her feel like a mere pest, like today.

The red headed girl sighed loudly, dropping her head heavily onto the coffee table and exclaiming, "this is hard I'll just become a rich man's wife, uh-huh!"

The boy seated across from her snorted loudly, "good luck finding any man willing to marry a pig."

Sougo dodged the pencil that was thrown at his head and continued writing without missing a beat. They were filling out their applications to colleges, Kagura having to go to her rival for help as the forms and legal mumbo jumbo were out of her depth. The only reason she'd resorted to his help was because Shinpachi had refused to help her saying something rude about how she always copied his work and took him for granted. The Sadist was recommended to many competitive schools, having good grades and all, and seemed to be taking full advantage of the situation regardless of how far away the classy schools were.

Kagura blew the hair out of her face, "easy for you to say." She muttered bitterly, "this is easy for you."

The flaxen haired boy hummed in agreement and continued his furious writing.

Kagura narrowed her eyes, "don't you even feel a little sad, you damned Sadist?" She sat up sharply and tapped her hands on the table between them, "aren't you going to miss us at all? Well, maybe not that stupid Mayonnaise lover but Gin-chan and Gorilla and Big Sister and me…" she trailed off towards the end.

Sougo paused writing for the first time since he'd begun and looked up at her with a blank expression, "Why would I miss you?"

Kagura almost laughed at his deadpan reply, not expecting anything different, "well, it's not like I'll miss you either!"

Sougo continued staring at her, "well of course not."

"Fine then! We won't miss each other at all, uh-huh! I'll be glad to not see you everyday!"

"Why do you say it as if we won't be together?"

Kagura's annoyance fell flat, "what do you mean?"

"Don't just assume we won't be together next year." Sougo fixed her with the same blank look, "I'm applying to the same school as you."

"Wait, what?" Kagura was sure her mouth was hanging open in surprise at the almost nice gesture.

Sougo tilted his head and his eyes gleamed in a dangerous way, "no way would I let my favourite toy escape for four years."

Kagura bristled and begun flinging her school utensils at him all the while ignoring the way her cheeks burned when he'd said "my favourite".

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **Family** / **Moving on**

For as long as Sougo had known the annoying China girl and her lazy foster father he had been aware of the strange bond between the two. It was clear to anyone with eyes that the girl adored her father and the man reciprocated those feelings. However, it was obvious that while the man's feelings were innocent and completely familial the girl's weren't so easily identified. It wasn't until Sougo was thirteen that he worked out the girl held an almost love like admiration for the man. So when the perm head brought home his girlfriend to meet his "family" for the first time Sougo couldn't help but watch the red headed girl intently to see how she would react to the situation.

The woman was beautiful; piercing purple eyes, dirty blond hair and a tall body that contained grace and pride. The most interesting feature about the woman was the long scar that ran down her left eye, something that the perm head didn't seem to mind in the least.

It wasn't that Sougo was worried about his long time rival (he was annoyed at the fact he was thinking about her feelings and wanted to relieve the feeling) but seeing the stunning woman walk in with the man she clearly held in high regards made Sougo restless. Of _course_ she had to be beautiful why would the world cut him – _her_ any slack.

What followed was a pleasant conversation where his own idiot foster father asked the woman – _Tsukuyo_ – stupid questions, the glasses' sister hitting him in-between seemingly competing with the woman for dominant female of the group, stupid Hijikata trying to appear cool but making a fool of himself, and the two other teenagers there besides himself sitting in mostly silence.

Once it ended Sougo found himself lingering when his family made their move to go home. Lingering still when the China girl left the apartment and made her way to the park, sitting down beside her on the bench they often frequented without telling himself to do so.

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours until Kagura spoke calmly, "she was beautiful, way too pretty for Gin-chan."

Sougo nodded, "smart too."

Kagura sighed, "poor Tsukky, she's gonna go insane with that perm head."

The boy turned to her with a frown on his face at the use of the affectionate nickname, "Tsukky?"

Kagura nodded, cocking her head to the side, "yeah, she's probably gonna be my mum or sister or public lice-in-law at some point so gotta get close to her."

Sougo returned his gaze to the ground, watching the ants make their way back and forth across the dirt.

Her voice broke the voice softly, so softly he missed what she'd said.

"What?"

"I said," Kagura enunciated the words in annoyance, "I'm fine, so stop worrying."

"Worrying?"

Kagura rolled her eyes, "yes, worrying. I don't love him anymore not like, like _that,_ so I'm fine, really." She leaned backwards on the bench and smiled, "I'm just happy he's happy, uh-huh!"

The flaxen haired boy frowned as a foreign feeling of relief washed through him, "I think you've lost it, China, I wasn't worried."

The girl smiled in a way that made Sougo bristle with the condescending nature behind it, "sure you weren't."

Sougo got up and began walking in the direction of their neighbourhood, pausing silently that suggested he was waiting for her to follow. She smiled and pushed herself off the bench, skipping quickly to catch up to the boy.

"Thanks for caring you dumb Sadist."

.

~~o~~o~~

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* * *

 **How was it?**

 **Please leave a review when you go they mean a lot!**

 **Thanks and until next time!**


	6. 6: Boy and Girl

**I'm so sorry it's been so long I'm the worst! Uni started the week after I posted the last chapter and I just haven't had the time inbetween getting used to being back in the city, getting used to my timetable and doing assignments but I'll try to update at least once a month until the next holidays when I can write more! Thanks for everyone who reviewed last chapter and for those who are still with me and this crazy couple!**

 **So at first this may seem like a bit of a filler/nothing chapter but don't be fooled because it's very important in exploring Sougo's feelings for Kagura :') and hinting at what is to come for him (it's not far off now trust me the boy is very smart just very good at denial)!**

 **I hope it's all still in character and I really hope you enjoy! You'll see a fair few references to the canon material in this one (the second prompt is based off the episode where Kagura shows the man around Kabuki-cho and her and Sougo swindle a man out of his money lol, the last one having obvious parallels to the Skii Arc)**

 **Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy! Also you can thank the anon from tumblr who kicked my butt into gear and made me commit to finishing this chapter earlier!**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own the beautiful, violent, sad children**

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Light/Dark**

For anyone watching the pair of bickering teenagers it would be hard to image the two having anything in common apart from their apparent love of fighting with one another. However, the two shared many similarities, things that couldn't be understood nor explained by anyone who didn't also hold those qualities. Crushing darkness that two kids so young shouldn't know but understood better than anyone.

For Sougo looking at Kagura was like looking at a different version of himself. The version of himself where the light won and his entire existence wasn't weighed down by the guilt of letting down his sister or hurting others.

For Kagura, Sougo was the animalistic side of herself that she fought against every single day in order to crush the immanent darkness looming inside her, but he was strong enough to not let it consume him and continue with it in control.

She had her darkness.

And he had his light.

That was their shared truth.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Perfection** / **Only Human after all/** **Condemn**

Everyone always talked about how smart the sadist was but Kagura didn't understand why, all she could see was how utterly stupid he was in every single aspect. Sure he was good at school and sports and girls seemed to like him but how did no one see how idiotic he truly was?

He spent every single waking moment forcing himself so as not to break his indifferent and collected façade. All he did was pretend he was perfect and it irked Kagura to no end.

He was far from perfect but he only ever seemed to slip in front of her, screaming profanities at her and threatening her life on a daily basis while feigning nonchalance to the rest of the world.

She hated it.

She'd never been able to understand why he tried so damn hard to keep the charade going, she knew for a fact his gorilla of a father wouldn't care if he got terrible grades or missed school, hell he'd thought it was impressive when the fool had gotten arrested. And his annoying mayonnaise loving mother or brother or whatever he was may give him a hard time but Kagura knew if Sougo messed up or needed help he wouldn't hesitate to offer. Her own father and extended family, Shinpachi and Tae, were very much the same and would accept the sadist freak whatever. So why did he try so hard?

She thought he was a fool for trying so hard to maintain the perfection he strived for, maybe it had something to do with his sister Kagura didn't know, he was only human after all. Kagura herself was no stranger to making mistakes and while he teased her every time she knew he would never condemn her for such actions. That's why when the sadist finally screwed up and gave up on perfection she'd be right there to show him how to pick himself up – and maybe throw him along with his dignity into the river like he did this morning to her.

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Swindle**

"My ice cream! No!" The red headed girl wailed dramatically staring at the splattered form of her previous treat, "you were too young!"

The boy at her side stared at her with a blank expression, as he seemed used to the spectacle playing out before him. The girl paused her grieving the shoot a dirty look at the young man fluttering around nervously who'd knocked the sweet out of her hand.

"Uh, I'm so-"

His sentence was cut short when the girl lunged forward and seized the front of his shirt, shaking him harshly, "how are you gonna make up for this, huh?"

The flaxen haired boy continued to watch impassively even as the man shot him a look of panic.

"I-I'll buy you a new one!" He sputtered out nervously, sweat dropping slowly down his forehead as he stared into the wild eyes of the smaller girl.

"Not good enough!" The red head wailed, "give me back my youth!"

The man looked down right desperate and appeared to look around desperately for an escape.

The other boy opened his mouth and the man visibly relaxed momentarily before he realised the intentions of the boy.

"If you're going to carelessly walk around in a crowded place you should expect to pay more than just the original price in compensation when you damage someone's property." The boy then turned to the raging girl next to him, "he seems like the type that thinks ice cream is stupid, China."

"What was that?" She drawled out furiously, shaking the man again.

The man began to panic again and realised he wasn't going to get out of this situation anytime soon. He grabbed for his wallet and fished for it's entire contents, offering the money to his captor.

"This is all I have!" He whimpered, "Please let me go!"

The girl released him immediately, pulling back with a wide grin on her face, "I can buy enough _sukonbu_ to last a year!" She waddled away idly, grinning to herself as she flipped through the cash.

The boy watched her impassively for a moment before turning to the man slowly and grinning. He stared in horror as he realised he'd been played by the odd couple, watching the sadistic boy trail after his hot-headed female companion.

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **Umbrella/Everyday Magic/Amaze/** **Rain**

As much as he hated to admit it the red headed china girl never ceased to amaze him.

Sougo watched her as she ran across the field, hair drenched from the rain while she reached for the squealing children as they tried to avoid her quick grasp, eyes wide with amusement and mouth curled up so obviously.

When a brown haired little girl slipped and landed in a giant puddle of mud Kagura threw her head back and her musical laugh escaped her lips, filling the atmosphere with it's carefree sound.

Sougo found himself more and more entranced by the obnoxious china girl every single day and he didn't have the will to care any longer.

He wasn't sure what the strange fascination he had with his annoying childhood friend meant and he didn't plan to explore it any time soon but that didn't mean he intended to stop enjoying the shots of bliss she threw at him every single day.

She had a way with the world that completely captured Sougo, the simple childish act of her chasing a bunch of children around an empty park seemed like utter sorcery to him. She and everything that was the china girl held an everyday magic that left him excited for the following day to see what amusement she would offer him today.

The sky boomed loudly and the children scurried around making their separate ways home. Once the crowd of small people had dispersed Kagura made her way over to her waiting companion.

Her hair was dishevelled, hanging in wet clumps around her face and down her back. He clothes completely soaked through showing nothing that Sougo hadn't seen before in their many years together. But her eyes were what really caught his attention – they were bright the way they only were when she'd performed her mundane magic upon not only others but herself.

"You should've joined in, that was fun, uh-huh!"

Sougo watched her intently observing how her mouth was still curled upwards in delight; he wanted to see it move in another direction, "watching you finally become accepted with the litter of pigs, I mean children, was enough for me."

Kagura frowned instantly, her previously smiling mouth curling in annoyance, "you wouldn't know how to have fun if it hit you on the foot!"

"It's face, China Girl."

Sougo struggled to hide his amusement as he followed the magical girl under the purple umbrella home while she called him every name under the hiding sun.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Ghost/Sorry**

Mitsuba's ghost still haunted him.

In the walls of his and Kondou's apartment. In the eyes of the stupid mayonnaise loving fool. In the spicy food the perm head sometimes like to make that his daughter always complained was too hot.

He saw her everywhere, that was nothing new, but something else was. Recently he'd been seeing her sometimes when the china brat smiled. It was only ever when she thought no one was looking, and when she felt completely comfortable and at peace, showing a rare kind of gentle smile that he hadn't thought the girl capable of. But it was there and there was the kind, caring face of his beloved older sister behind the one girl he might just possibly respect as much as her.

The first time he saw it was the first time he apologised to another person other than his dearly passed sister.

The china brat had been telling him that Soyo's older brother, Sho-chan, had an ugly brown Otsu turtle neck jumper in his closet, to which he'd laughed and told her no man of his stature would ever wear an Otsu jumper. To say he'd been utterly wrong was an understatement. It had been there, browner and uglier than he'd imagined with Otsu's face pasted straight across the front with the words 'Your Mother is an XX!' splayed underneath. He'd been in so much shock that he'd immediately returned to red headed girl and apologised numbly, her being too disgusted by the jumper to take any joy or amusement in the sentiment either. It was an occurrence they both preferred to forget. That was until Sougo looked back at Kagura and saw that gentle smile for the first time, but instead of seeing the obnoxious china brat he saw his kind hearted sister and his heart stopped for a moment.

Ever since that event he'd found himself unwittingly searching for signs of his departed sister in the other girl with no luck. She was rude, volatile, stupid, disgusting, obnoxious and nothing at all like his sweet sister. Yet he couldn't help but find the two were fundamentally similar and it bothered him to no end. He knew the logical explanation for why he saw the only woman he'd ever loved and opened his heart to in the china brat but he didn't want to even consider the possibility, or lack there of.

He'd much rather accept that the ghost of his older sister was somehow stalking him through the person he hated most, that was definitely preferable.

.

~~o~~o~~

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 **I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to hit me up for a review! They really really motivate me to keep going :))))**

 **Thanks again! Happy Easter :)**

 **Until next time xxxxxxxxxxx**


	7. 7: Daughter and Son

**Hello I'm back! This chapter was kind of annoying to write for some reason but it sets up next chapter which I have a fair idea people are going to freak over :') I've been rewatching Gintama so I'm into Okikagu again (yay!) more than usual so it wasn't as hard to come back to them haha god bless the sadist couple**

 **Anyway, enjoy this chapter a few new (old) favs are introduced in this world which I hope you enjoy!**

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own Anpan nor Yamazaki**

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~~o~~o~~

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 **Bait/Provoke/Cold**

"Just looking at your disgusting alien face makes me feel ill."

"I'm sorry I can't understand the words of lesser beings, please rephrase that or move out of my way."

"I'll rephrase it when you remove that creepy arse smile off your face and maybe actually begin to classify as a human being."

"If you're considered a human I'd much rather be a rabbit."

"Are you sure? Human's tend to eat rabbit."

The fighting had been going on for almost ten minutes now and Kagura didn't have the will nor care enough to stop it. The insults the two eighteen-year-old boys were throwing at each other were juvenile and maybe just a little bit too hard for the younger girl to understand.

"Seriously move it would you, you annoying runt."

"You're the exact same height as me if you didn't notice you ahoge haired freak."

"I'm done asking politely, move out of my way," the red haired male finally dropped the smile are stared at Sougo menacingly, "now."

Kagura jumped up from her spot on the couch then and moved warily away from the door.

The flaxen haired boy stood straight in his position blocking the entrance to Kagura's small apartment, "what do you want? A rematch? Why are you even here, freak?"

"Don't flatter yourself, policeman wannabe, I'm not here to see you." His cold gaze moved slowly then from Sougo to the girl standing helplessly in the middle of the apartment behind him, "I'm here to see her."

Kagura couldn't see it but she could imagine the cold smirk that graced Sougo's lips at that moment, "you'll have to get through me first."

Kamui smiled that unnerving grin again and look at Sougo as if he was an insect, "as much as I appreciate your creepy concern for my weakling sister I would appreciate it if you didn't get in the way of our family time."

The red headed male shoved Sougo violently against the wall then and made a move into the apartment.

"What do you want, Idiot brother?" Kagura yelled angrily, "Gin-chan will be pissed if you mess up his apartment!"

Kamui continued smiling, "little sister I'm not here to fight you I'm here to talk."

Kagura shifted warily, the two siblings ignoring the slow movements of the other boy in the room, "why? What about? I have nothing to say to you, uh-huh!"

Her brother laughed lightly, "yes it seems you let your boyfriend do all the talking."

Kagura screwed her nose up in disgust while Sougo muttered, "who'd date that disgusting pig?"

"I'm here to talk about our father, however, so you may want to listen to this." Kamui continued as if Sougo wasn't there.

At this Kagura perked up, "Papi?"

Kamui's demeanour was as impassive as ever, "yes, the old baldy. He's back in town."

"What? Here?" Kagura asked in shock, "how do you know?"

"Because the old fool came to visit me, he wasn't pleased to know the two of us didn't live together anymore and that you'd moved in with another man."

"Wha-what?" Kagura sputtered, "it's his fault for not coming home for ten years!"

Kamui nodded, "I agree, I'm here to tell you to go make the idiot forget his plans about getting you back home. I don't intend to live near either of you weaklings ever again."

Kagura frowned, trying to ignore the shot of pain that went through her chest when he disregarded herself and her father as his family.

"It's not like I want to live with you either, stupid brother!"

Kamui smiled again, the creepy pleased one he wore when he got what he wanted, "good. I'll be going now," he turned to look at Sougo as he made a move for the door, "always good to see you, weakling bodyguard."

Sougo glared at the other boy as he exited the apartment and disappeared out of sight. He then moved his gaze to the girl standing there with a dejected expression that barely hid the sadness she was experiencing.

The flaxen haired boy stood up and gestured towards the door, "I heard they're selling sukonbu for half price at the store."

Kagura brightened immediately, thoughts of her idiot brother forgotten momentarily, "let's go before they sell it all to that annoying old man down the street!"

Kagura caught the small smile on her rivals face as she raced past him towards the convenience store; she decided not to comment on it for the time being and focus on getting her food.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Father**

Kagura flitted nervously around the door of her old home – a shabby, one bedroom apartment barely big enough to be considered liveable for one person let alone four. Good thing only one person lived there now.

The red headed girl knocked warily on the familiar door and jumped at the unfamiliar sound of footsteps coming from the once loved home.

The door swung open to reveal a tall balding man with a black moustache and harsh eyes.

"Hi Papi." She said anxiously.

The response she got was to be lifted off the ground by the strong arms of her father and swung in a grand circle, "Kagura!"

Once her father had stopped blubbering all over her Kagura took a step back and tried to peer through the gap behind him into their home.

He noticed and moved aside giving her look as if to say 'come in'. Kagura was rooted in place, however, torn between wanting to see the place she'd grown up in with her loving family and wanting to avoid the cold feeling she got from the once warm home.

She didn't have to decide as at that moment Kamui appeared from the staircase at the start of the complex exclaiming flatly, "you're still here."

Their father piped up in indignation, "I'm your father and I live here of course I'm still around!"

Kamui snorted, "could've fooled me, you haven't been around for ten years why should that change now."

Kagura stared between the two numbly; not liking the way Kamui spoke to their father but also not disagreeing with his words.

"Uh, Papi, I didn't know you were coming back." Kagura said in an attempt to ease the tension.

He fixed his glare on Kagura then, "and I didn't know you had moved out and into a _man's house_ of all things!"

"It's not like I mov-"

"How could you, Kagura? You're just a child?"

"Papi, if you'd let me expla-"

"Being taken advantage of like this, I knew moving to Tokyo was a bad idea!"

"Gin-chan isn't taking adva-"

"That's why I'm taking you with me, I don't care what you say."

Kagura paused then and stared at her father in horror, the sounds of her elder brother moving around the house forgotten, "what?"

"I said I'm taking you with me." Her father stated again more sternly.

At that moment something inside Kagura snapped and she started laughing – not out of amusement or joy or happiness but simply hysteria. Her father, her _absent_ father, thought he was going to pop up all of a sudden and take her from the only true family she had? Ridiculous!

"You don't have any right to do that." Kagura stated, staring at the man with hard eyes.

She heard a whistle of appreciation from her brother but she ignored it.

"Pardon?"

"I said," she braced herself, "you can't take me away, I'm not going with you."

"And why not?"

"This is my home," she thought of all the things she'd miss if she left with her father, "Gin-chan's house is my home."

"Gin-chan? That man you're living with? What right does he have?" Her father was angry now and Kamui seemed to be enjoying the family fued.

" _His_ right?" She paused thinking of what Gintoki was to her and what he meant to her. She wasn't in love with him nor did she consider him a friend. She definitely considered him her family but he wasn't a brother to her like Shinpachi was or an uncle like Zura or the mayo freak. He wasn't even as motherly as the gorilla was. He only meant one thing in her mind, "he's my dad."

The man stood there for a few moments in silent horror, staring at his only daughter's face as she claimed she belonged to another man. He exploded panic, "what do you mean he's your father? _I'm_ your father!"

Kagura shook her head, "I never said he was my father, I said he was my _dad._ You're right you are my father, but Gin-chan is my dad. He's always there for me and he's where my family is."

Kagura's bald father seemed too upset to process the difference and merely asked, "am I still your family?"

Kagura smiled, "yep!" She nodded her head, "you, Mami and that stupid brother of mine are all my family too!" She threw up her hands, "I just have an even bigger family now." She listed off on her fingers, "there's Gin-chan, and Shinpachi, and Big Sis, and that mayo freak, and that stupid gorilla, and…" She was going to mention the sadist but for some reason including him in her list of family members seemed wrong so she trailed off mid sentence.

Her father didn't seem to notice the drop, instead focusing on his daughter in front of him. She caught Kamui's eyes and knew that he hadn't missed the omission of one _very_ important member of her 'family'.

"So, you won't come live with me?" Her father asked meekly.

Kagura shook her head, "nope!"

"But you'll still let me visit you?"

Kagura nodded viciously, "just tell me when you're coming!"

The man appeared to ponder this for a moment, "on one condition."

Kagura cocked her head waiting for the condition.

"I get to punch that man in the face once."

Kamui chose to pipe up then, holding a giant bag apparently fed up with being in the same vicinity with the man he hated most in the world, "just thought you should know the man she lives with is a no good, gambling addicted, natural perm. See ya, I'm off to wash the stench of weakling off of me."

As Kamui faded into the distance their father turned to Kagura in horror.

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Job/diner**

Sougo surveyed the small restaurant seriously as he searched for the girl with the long red hair. Yamazaki was chattering annoyingly across the table from him as he looked over the menu with glee – Sougo had promised to pay if he accompanied him to his destination.

His eyes finally rested upon the scurrying form of the China girl as she carried plates on both arms towards a table in the far back. A sly smile broke across his face as he took in her frilly dress and submissive attitude towards the customers – he could really enjoy this.

"What are you going to get, Okita?" Yamazaki's voice broke through his joy and Sougo snapped his back towards his companion.

To say the other male annoyed him was an understatement but who else was free on a Friday night apart from losers; no way was he going to ask Hijikata or the glasses virgin.

Sougo waved his hand, "whatever, just get the attention of that waitress." He pointed towards the visibly agitated red haired girl.

Yamazaki frowned but waved her down until the girl finally caught sight of him and made her way to the table, not noticing the other man sitting with him yet.

Once she reached the table she paused taking in a deep breathe before cocking her head to the side and smiling brightly, "can I take your order, sir?"

It was too much for Sougo and he burst out in loud fits of laughter. Yamazaki looked alarmed and a look of horror crossed Kagura's face as she finally noticed who was sitting with the weird looking weedy guy she was serving. She finally recognised him as the gorilla's boring cousin in the year above them who attended the local university, he also acted like the mayonnaise king's servant. However, that was irrelevant with the king of sadist's sitting in front of her in her current state laughing his head off.

"No!" She groaned loudly.

"Yes." Sougo replied with an enormous grin gracing his features.

Sougo had heard from his father that Kagura had started working at their land lord's restaurant as a way to help pay off their monthly rent and had immediately jumped at the opportunity to torment her.

Kagura placed her hand on her hip, polite attitude replaced with sass immediately, "what do you want, Chihuahua?"

"Chihuahua?" Yamazaki echoed in confusion.

Sougo tsked his tongue, "hey, hey, waitress, is that any way to talk to a customer?" He turned to Yamazaki, "that was pretty rude, don't you think?"

"Uh- I guess…"

Kagura rolled her eyes, "what is it you'd like to order, oh precious customer?"

Sougo's grin grew, "I haven't decided yet," he held the menu up for the first time, leaning back in his seat, "the shop said it sold 'everything sweet' but I can't seem to find pudding on here anywhere."

"I'm sorry sir, we don't sell pudding." Kagura's smile tightened.

"That's just false advertising then, you clearly do not serve 'everything sweet'." Sougo nodded gravely, "I'd like to speak to your manager about that, as well as" He grinned then, "the terrible service of our waitress."

Kagura took a deep breath before speaking, "anything you wish, _sir._ "

She walked away, not before stepping heavily on Sougo's foot and apologising sarcastically, and returned moments later with a slightly older girl just a little bit taller than her. The girl had a pretty face and dull red eyes, her most striking feature being her bright green hair. Sougo paid her no mind, attention returning immediately to the agitated looking girl beside her however this was not the case for the other table occupant.

Yamazaki's mouth was hanging open in a perfect 'o' shape as he stared at the new comer.

"My name is Tama, I'm sorry if our service is not satisfactory to you dear customers, our manager is currently out right now but I can relay any concerns onto Ms Otose on your behalf."

Sougo was about to reply but was abruptly cut off by a stammering Yamazaki, "o-o-oh no, no! We're fine, right Okita?" He turned to Sougo frantically before facing the woman again and laughing nervously, "see no problems, he was just playing a joke on his friend here!" He followed the almost incoherent sentence with more jittering laughter.

Sougo stared at his companion in a mixture of disgust and horror while Kagura completely missed the other man's behaviour and reacted to simply his words, "who the hell is friend with that damn sadist?" She spat furiously, "see, Tama, I told you he's just an idiot we don't need to worry about his satisfaction!"

Sougo tried to ignore the jolt he felt when the word 'satisfaction' left the China girl's lips and continued staring at Yamazaki in horror.

Tama turned to Kagura and smiled politely, "the customer is always right, remember Kagura?" She turned back to the table occupants, "if any problems arise please let us know immediately, enjoy your meal."

As she prepared to leave Yamazaki sprung up suddenly, "wait!" He shouted. Tama paused, staring at him expectantly, and Yamazaki seemed to clam up in terror, "u-uh would you l-like to s-see a movie with m-me tomorrow?" he stuttered out foolishly.

Kagura and Sougo both couldn't help but wince at the awful public confession which Tama herself seemed oblivious to.

She simply watched the man impassively before saying, "I have work tomorrow sorry."

With that she up and left leaving a heart broken Yamazaki staring at her back while Sougo decided the pleasure of seeing Kagura dressed like a maid did not constitute spending the day with his idiotic cousin.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Heart**

When Sougo was six years old he'd asked Mitsuba what having a heart meant.

She'd gone on to tell him how a heart was what kept you alive but it could also be used to store precious people within it, people you 'loved'.

He'd then asked her what love meant and the smile she'd given him at that moment still followed him to this day.

It wasn't until many years later after Hijikata had come into their lives and Mitsuba had begun behaving strangely that Sougo realised that she loved him. He'd also realised that he loved his sister but it was different to the way she loved stupid Hijikata. He wasn't a fan of the concept of love for a long time as it meant he had to share his sister but it was until many years later that he came to hate it.

He came to hate love the day he realised that Hijikata loved his sister too but also brutally rejected her instead of returning her affections. It was then he understood that love was a weapon people used against you to hurt you.

That was why Sougo decided he would never love anyone again. He didn't need anyone but Kondou, having a heart was just a burden, a weakness.

Yes, there was no one Sougo would ever love again. He wouldn't allow it, even if his heart did happen to be the same colour as her hair.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Cousin**

It wasn't often but every once in a while Kagura's 'uncles' came to visit.

There was Zura that had grown up with Gintoki who she knew well and saw almost as much as her next-door neighbours. This was only when said neighbours – the gorilla, the mayonnaise lover and the sadist, weren't around, however.

Then there was Sakamoto who her foster father had met in his teens that liked to laugh and was always smiling. He was hardly in the country as he ran his shipping business with a woman Kagura had always suspected was his girlfriend named Mutsu.

Although they didn't meet up often when they did it always ended in the three of them trashing themselves and spending hours upon hours singing horridly and complaining loudly about their youth and women. Kagura normally tuned them out and hid in her room until they passed out. Today, however, her father had taken it upon his drunken self to give her a life lesson.

"Kagura," the natural perm drawled, "you can't trust anyone! People always lie to you!"

The red headed girl who was currently braiding her longheaded uncles hair as he mumbled about perfect dog paws frowned, "what do you mean, Gin-chan?"

Gintoki sat up and looked at her very seriously, "I'm saying you may think you're close to someone now but don't be fooled, they can easily just leave you!" He flopped back down onto the floor again and continued his drunken slur, "you might grow up with someone as close as brothers only to have them disappear when you become an adult. Take that Souchirou-kun for example," Kagura jumped at the mention of her rival, "you might be close now but he could just betray you when you least expect it."

Kagura watched as her foster father closed his eyes and began snoring almost immediately afterwards. She set down Zura's head and made her way to her bedroom, leaving the three drunkards on the floor.

She'd heard many of Gintoki's random drunk rambling but never had she heard him mention his past or those who may have left him alone. Rather than focusing on that though she couldn't shake his words that her rival (or Shinpachi she added to justify it to herself) might one day disappear from her life. All those years of wishing he would leave her alone would come true and instead of feeling happiness she just felt empty.

The thought of never seeing Sougo again terrified and confused her so she turned off her light and went to sleep.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

* * *

 **Well I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next time!**

 **xoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	8. 8: Adult and Child

**So I'm a bit earlier finishing this than I thought I would be! Bright side you get a chapter now down side I'm probably going to leave you on a HUGE cliffhanger for about a month (SORRY IN ADVANCE) because exams are coming up and I've got like 100000000 assignments due!**

 **This one man did I have fun writing this one and purely not because most of it is stupid crack but the last one ha ha ha hahahaha have fun with it. In the second one please just picture Gin squealing like he does in the show those are my favourite moments ok. I'm not entirely sure if I'm accurate on the driving one I googled it and it says you can get your license in Japan at 18 after doing a course so at the time we're at in the story now Kagura is 17 and Sougo is 18 so I was like since Sougo will probably be getting his license soon or has it Kagura can learn to drive and wikipedia said it doesn't matter how you learn to drive so well here we have this stupid part anyway it's a bit of fun sorry if it's incorrect!**

 **Enjoy my friends!**

 **Also a few people have asked me what my tumblr is so I'll just post it here: .com and thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter there was heaps it really keeps me motivated!**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the sadistic children**

* * *

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Compliment**

Kagura smoothed her hair back as she hurried towards the landing outside their small apartment.

"Sorry, Gin-chan! I couldn't find my phone!" The girl apologised to her nicely dressed guardian.

The silver haired man merely nodded as he motioned for the two of them towards the staircase. "Shinpachi told us to meet them at six, his gorilla sister is going to be rabid by now if we don't feed her soon."

Their weird family was meeting the Shimura's at a nearby fancy restaurant to celebrate Tae getting a job promotion. She was mainly using the opportunity to get a free meal of out them meaning the gorilla would be paying for the Shimura's and the Sakata's to eat their weeks worth of food in one evening.

Kagura and Gin slowed down as they caught up to their next-door neighbours, Kondou shuffling nervously in his suit probably anxious about upsetting Tae.

Hijikata sighed loudly as he puffed on his cancer stick looking ridiculously handsome in his suit, "took you long enough," he motioned towards the footpath, "let's go!"

The black haired man stumbled forward, ruining his previous cool guy image, as Gin kicked him in the back, "shut up, tax robber!"

The two began bickering as Kondou tried to mediate between them, Kagura rolling her eyes at the familiar scenario. She turned to see her rival all dressed up looking as stupidly attractive as ever for an internally ugly human being, "what, Sadist?"

Sougo shrugged strolling past Kagura after the older men, "not bad, China."

Kagura stood rooted in place for a few seconds processing the boy's words. Had– had the sadist just _complimented_ her?

The red headed girl shook her head roughly, disregarding her neatly styled hair due to the shock of the compliment. After a moment she followed after her rival deciding to ignore the pleasant comment as how could anyone not compliment her when she looked this damn good.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Speeding**

No Kagura turn right! Turn ri-" Gintoki's frantic sentence was cut off abruptly as he began screaming loudly. "Kagura pull over! Pull over!"

The red headed girl didn't notice the way her guardian's voice rose several octaves as she veered wildly into the left lane. She turned towards the silver headed man, "Gin-chan, look! I'm Vin Diesel!"

"Slow down, Kagura!" Gin continued his panicked yelling, cursing himself for agreeing to teach the girl to drive.

Kagura ignored him however and continued swerving wildly all over the narrow road in their neighbourhood.

Sougo and Hijikata watched the car as it sped dangerously down the street with awe. The flaxen haired boy turned to his companion, "can I do that."

Hijikata removed his cigarette from his mouth and replied, "no."

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Reflection** / **The True You**

Some days it was unbearable to look at her own reflection. Every time she caught sight of those big blue eyes all she could see was the same ones staring back at her through a colder gaze. Her normally lively red hair seemed vicious and cruel and her smile seemed hostile and fake.

Other days she hated to look at her brother the mere sight of him made her furious. Those days were worse. She knew the reason she hated her brother so much wasn't because of what he did to her but because of what she saw in him. He was a reflection of herself, of all the worst parts she tried to hide and squash down but could never completely get rid of. The days she hated her brother were the days she was closest to her other self.

Sougo thought all of this was ridiculous when she told him. How on earth could she be like her bastard brother when she was so damn bright? He'd told her as much and she'd stared at him with an odd mix of disbelief, awe and pity. He knew she didn't take in anything he said but that didn't stop him from knowing the truth – the true Kagura wasn't the reflection of Kamui she was the contrast.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Sand**

The more Shinpachi watched them the more irritated he became.

Okita had been watching Kagura nervously all day like she was some kind of toddler and everyone around her was dangerous. Well more like everyone around her that was _male_ was scum.

It was no surprise that Kagura attracted a lot of attention in a bikini with her newly developed body, even Shinpachi found himself unable to look his little 'sister' directly in the eyes, and it was even less of a surprise how Okita reacted.

While he seemed pleased at the show he seemed absolutely livid at the attention she was receiving from everyone he deemed dissatisfactory, which was every male apart from himself it appeared.

A guy made a grab at Kagura's backside as he passed by and Okita twitched in the direction only to be beaten to him by the girl herself.

Shinpachi watched the sly grin cross the flaxen haired boy's face as Kagura slammed a passing pervert into the sand with her bare fists alone thanking every star in heaven he'd never grown feelings for his sister like friend.

There really was nothing like a day at the beach, after all.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Falling** / **Reality** / **Acceptance** / **Forever and a day/Control**

The day Sougo worked it out was a day he'd never be able to forget.

Kagura was screaming as the birds fluttered nervously around her, squawking and scurrying as they tried to escape the awful sound. Sougo felt the same, fighting every instinct in his body to run in the opposite direction to the crying girl.

It had been years since Sougo had seen the red headed girl lose control like that and even then he couldn't remember another time it had been this bad. She fought for so long and so hard against her demonic nature that she shared with her brother that it was easy to forget it even existed. But here it was in the plain daylight, evidence of years of neglect and abuse tumbling out of her at once in the form of strangled screams in an abandoned field.

He supposed he should be thankful no one was around and only he was here to witness this melt down, but the helplessness and crippling anxiety he felt at the scene overshadowed any silver linings.

Sougo approached her warily as she sat in silence after minutes of screaming, "China," he said slowly.

She whirled on him with wild eyes, "don't!" She warned, holding her hands up like a cornered animal.

He swallowed, pausing, "it's ok, China, I won't hurt you."

She shook her head, "you're lying, you're _lying!"_

Sougo bent down to her level, "China, look at me." She shook her head again, "China!" She locked eyes with his, "it's me."

Through glazed eyes she choked out brokenly, "I'll hurt you."

The sound made Sougo's chest feel tight as he shook his head slowly, "no you won't, you won't hurt me, China."

She stared at him for what felt like an eternity before finally asking cautiously, "Sadist?"

He nodded, "yeah, it's me." She relaxed visibly and Sougo took the opportunity to approach her, "you really freaked me out there."

She closed her eyes, "I don't- I don't know- what happened?"

Sougo knelt in front of her slowly, "you just lost it for a minute there, but you're fine now. You're in control."

"I'm in control?" She repeated.

Sougo smirked, "as much as ever."

Kagura closed her eyes again, breathing deeply for a few moments before standing abruptly.

Sougo jumped back in surprise, falling on his bottom in the muddy grass.

The red headed girl turned to him with wide, clear eyes and smiled condescendingly, "what are you doing down there in the dirt, Chihuahua? Finally ready to submit to me?"

Sougo scowled, "in your dreams." Kagura diverted her attention elsewhere and Sougo smiled.

He watched the girl with quiet curiosity for a moment and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.

He watched as she tipped her head back, whirling her arms in a circle as her long red hair followed the action, and inhaled deeply before letting it all our in one giant cry, the sound echoing off his brain and unlocking something inside him.

"Oh"

He said out loud and the girl with the bright azure eyes turned to look at him, "what Sadist?"

Sougo blinked back to reality, bursting into a fit of laughter immediately. The realisation didn't bother him as much as it should have, it instead came as a relief, and explaining months of behaviour to him and as the pieces fell into place he found the reality of the situation surprisingly easy to accept. It was almost comical that he hadn't worked it out sooner it felt like forever and a day since he'd first lost himself to the fact.

Sougo shook his head, "nothing, China, go back to calling for your fellow pigs."

Kagura scowled, "you're such a freak." She spat as she turned away and Sougo watched her go, his eyes seemed to follow her involuntarily now.

He wasn't sure how he'd missed it all this time it seemed so deafeningly simple.

He was in love with the China girl.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

* * *

 **I told you he wasn't stupid lol**

 **Hope you enjoyed it and please hit me up for a review or a message on tumblr!**

 **Thanks xoxxooxoxoxoxo**


	9. Special: Voice Mail of Shinpachi Shimura

**Hello hello! So I probably won't be writing an actual chapter anytime soon uni is killing me so here is something that was meant to be in the next chapter but can be posted alone to get you through the wait! I'm really sorry but holiday's start in less than a month now so enjoy this and I'll make the next chapter worth it I promise!**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Shinpachi if I did I'd give the boy a blanket and a rest**

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 **Voice Mail**

The voice mail of Shinpachi Shimura

 _Saturday 7:31pm_

Shinpachiiiiiiiiii? Where are you? Answer your phone!

 _Saturday 7:34pm_

SHINPACHI ANSWER YOUR PHONE

 _Saturday 7:36pm_

SHINPACHI HERPES ME! ANSWER YOUR PHONE! COME HERE QUICK!

 _Saturday 7:49pm_

Don't worry we don't need you anymore

 _Saturday 8:21pm_

OH CRAP COME QUICK I'M SERIOUS THIS TIME!

 _Saturday 8:28pm_

IT JUST GOT WORSE SOYO-CHAN JUST FELL DOWN THE STAIRS! SHINPACHI WHERE AR- NO SOYO-CHAN DON'T DIE!

 _Saturday 8:37pm_

Oi Four Eyes can you pick us up from the train station in ten? China and the Princess keep harping on about how they need your help.

 _Saturday 8:42pm_

China and the Princess are currently talking to the police and it's stupid Hijikata's partner I can't go over there you need to get down here they're in some serious shit. Nobume keeps yelling at the officer to bring her some donu- oh wait she just told him she's going to kill him you should probably get down here soon.

 _Saturday 8:55pm_

I lost sight of them after the police took them away in their car. Saitou left and I'm sick of this so I'm going home goodbye.

 _Saturday 9:14pm_

Glasses have you heard from Kagura or Soyo I can't find them or that damn moron anywhere, it's Nobume by the way.

 _Saturday 9:26pm_

SHINPACHIIIIIIII! I'm in jail! I'm a fungus! Gin-chan is going to be so mad at me! Herpes me! Soyo-chan's brother will get in so much trouble if the tax robbers find out who she is! Come quick!

 _Saturday 10:47pm_

Patsuan have you heard from Kagura? I haven't heard from her all night and she won't answer her phone! Souchirou came home hours ago do you know where she is?

 _Saturday 11:01pm_

Glasses don't worry they were in jail I went and got them a few minutes ago the police are releasing them now. Tell Perm Head Kagura's at my house tonight, the Princess too.

 _Saturday 11:53pm_

Shinpachi I'm at Nobume's house! She came and her dad signed us out of jail! He's much cooler than that stupid Gorilla police chief! Have you seen the sadist, by the way? We lost him when we went to jail!

 _Sunday 00:14am_

I went to the tax robber's house and Souchirou informed me that Kagura was apparently in jail do you know anything about this?

 _Sunday 3:05am_

Shinpachi we're outside come play with us! Nobume said we should go parcelling or parrying or something!

 _Sunday 5:20am_

Nobume convinced China to do five shots in a row somehow – don't ask, and I can't take her home to Boss, could you come pick her up? The Princess and Nobume already left.

 _Sunday 5:54am_

She's at my house.

 _Sunday 8:02am_

Forget everything you heard last night. If you ever tell Gin-chan I will burn your Otsu dolls.

As Shinpachi played the last message he briefly wondered why no one ever bothered to invite him when they did something crazy.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed that it was just a bit of fun on my behalf haha now let's ignore the fact that Kagura, Soyo, Sougo, Nobume and Shinpachi are all underage and appreciate the fact that teenagers do stupid things ok I'm not so sure what kind of stupid things Japanese teenagers do but I imagine it's much the same as the stupid things us Australian teenagers do haha.**

 **Thanks and I'll see you soon!**


	10. 9: Prince and Princess

**So guess who's alive!**

 **This is soooooo late I'm so sorry it's been forever but honestly I just haven't had any time! I finished uni but then I got pretty much a full time job straight away so I legit have been sleeping, eating or working but today I've had some free time and finally finished this chapter! It's not as long as I thought it would be even though I did give you 6 rather than 5 prompts this time (go me!) but the next one should be if it's what I'm planning I'll try to get that up within the next month to make up for being so slack! Have fun reading this and I hope Sougo isn't to OOC :) Also i** **magine Kondou wearing the Tsusengumi fanclub costume from the Otsu fanclub arc in the first prompt lol**

* * *

 **PSA:** There's something I just wanted to make clear to you guys in case you didn't know considering I've had a fair few messages about how things I've written "aren't correct" which would be fine if it was about Japanese society and culture but it's mostly about things that aren't correct in an American context. First of all this story is set in modern day Japan not America! Second of all I know people tend to assume everyone on the internet is American these days but **I AM NOT AMERICAN** I am actually **AUSTRALIAN** so if I get things different to Japanese context most likely it is true in an Australian context and I've been trying my best to avoid this and to be correct but yeah the way characters behave and interact is based on my limited knowledge of Japanese culture and I'm sorry if my cultural norms show through and the way I interact with my friends and society influence the interactions of the characters in this! I've tried to tone down teen drinking and partying because I know the culture in Japan isn't anything like ours here and again the Australian teen drinking culture is much more relaxed and normalised compared to America's still so don't assume I'm going by an American system. Same goes for the whole college thing which I'm going to avoid purely for this reason because Australia doesn't really have stay on campus college's we have university's where students mostly live off campus or in a college like boarding house not affiliated with the university itself, there are also very VERY few private university's in Australia and the whole scholarship thing I don't get at all I'm basing that off my boarding school high school knowledge so yeah. If you read this thanks and enjoy the chapter!

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the sad sadistic children**

* * *

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Beer/Vomit/Witch**

A werewolf and a ghost screamed at each other with wild hand gestures as some sort of perverted denim wearing gorilla tried to break them apart. Of course the werewolf was Gintoki, the ghost stupid Hijikata and the disgusting old man attempting to be a sexy young guy was his very own foster father.

The party had gone from boring, to bad, to worse the longer the night went on as all the adult guests became rowdy and drunk while the younger ones had either left for a better party or were biding their time until they could escape home. Sougo was one of the latter with only the Glasses Stand, the idiotic Yamazaki who was currently following the green haired maid girl around like a puppy, and China still present, the princess and Nobume having left hours ago.

Sougo sighed as Gintoki's elbow caught Kondou square in the face and the fighting got even more out of control, he even heard "Katsura" being shouted out repeatedly and guessed the fighting had branched onto sore topics. The flaxen haired boy honed in on a pointy black hat sitting atop bright orange hair and made his way towards it; might as well entertain himself.

"What's up with the pig-tails, China?" Sougo jeered as he pulled up next to the girl.

Kagura turned slowly with a stupid look on her face and said with narrowed eyes, "shut up, Sadist!" The girl immediately turned into a laughing mess and Sougo instantly regretted approaching her. Kagura continued with a large smile that took attention away from her duller-than-usual azure eyes, "you're dressed like a vampire" she apparently thought this was hilarious, "you look stupid! As if girl's like you."

Good god the China girl was drunk. Sougo wasn't sure how he felt about this at all, "what are you drinking?"

Kagura shrugged, "Madao gave it to me," that seemed to be the end of that as she trailed off on another thought, "it's really cold tonight, aren't you cold? I'm cold."

Sougo simply groaned in response.

"Sadist," the red headed girl was frowning, "I don't feel good."

And that's how Sougo spent his eighteenth Halloween holding Kagura the witch's hair back as she vomited into a bush outside their apartment complex.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Senior**

Kagura hated that the Sadist was older than her because it meant that he treated her like he was superior to her.

"Oh you're young I keep forgetting", or "sorry, China Girl, guess pigs mature at a slower rate", or "how they let a child start third year is beyond me."

He was only four months older than her but he acted like she was a damn fourteen year old even going so far to call himself her 'senior'.

"Little girl you're not supposed to be out this late," came the drawling voice that grated on her nerves daily, "should I help you look for your daddy?"

Kagura walked away with only a bruised knuckle that day while Sougo found himself unable to participate in sports for at least a week.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Statement/ordinary**

"Stupid teacher said my essay was 'boring' and that I have the 'emotional depth of a child'" the red headed girl raved, "I don't even know what that means!"

Sougo stopped himself from snorting at their teacher's apparent grasp of China's character, "it means you're shallow, China."

Kagura glared at him through slitted eyes, "I'll show you shallow!" She snapped as she began hitting him with her school bag.

The flaxen haired boy fought her off after a moment and sighed, "why do you even care? You never get worked up about your grades."

Kagura turned away, staring at the buildings they passed in silence, "nothing." She muttered.

"What was that? I don't speak idiot?"

"None of your damn business!" She yelled in agitation.

The two fell into silence as they walked home from school, Sougo playing with his phone and Kagura still staring at the failing grade. After a while Sougo couldn't take it anymore and snatched the paper away from the seething girl.

"Hey!" Kagura yelled, reaching for her paper, "give that back!"

"'You clearly didn't spend much time thinking about the question, your writing lacks enthusiasm and is boring.'" Sougo mimicked, reading aloud the teacher's comments, "'your emotional depth displayed in this essay is that of a child, overall the work presented in this piece is ordinary at best.'" Sougo relinquished the paper to the girl who quickly pressed it to her chest with a glare. "Wow, that was harsh even for Otohime."

"Yeah, well, not everyone can understand my artistic agility!" Kagura huffed.

"You mean ability."

"Shut up, Sadist! Who asked you?"

Sougo ignored her ranting and looked straight ahead, "she was wrong about one thing."

Kagura looked at her companion in confusion, expecting an insult to come next, "and what was that?" she asked defensively.

"You are anything but ordinary, China."

Kagura's steps faltered as the boy continued on as if he hadn't said something completely out of character so nonchalantly. She shook her head and decided he must've been making fun of her, ignoring the way her heart beat fast the entire way to her doorstep.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Song**

"Your mother is an xx! Are you even still a human? Your mother is an xx yeah!"

Gintoki looked up into the eyes of Sougo, lowering the sponge he'd been using as a microphone, who stared back at him with a blank expression, clearly to stunned by not only the song but the enthusiasm the older man was putting into singing it while washing the dishes to respond appropriately.

Sougo slowly turned around and exited the room in the direction he came from while Gintoki returned to washing the dishes and the two of them never mentioned the incident again.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Crowd/Concert**

The red headed girl bounced up and down excitedly as they waited in the long line that lead into the enormous concert venue.

"Stand still, China, this is already unbearable enough as is."

Kagura was too excited to pay mind to the comment and simply turned happily to Shinpachi, "I wonder what song she'll play first!"

The glasses wearing virgin responded with enthusiasm, "my sources say it alternates between 'Your Mother Is An XX!' and 'Chome Chome'!"

"I can't wait to hear her live!"

The two Otsu fans went on like this for ages and Sougo zoned out.

Why he was standing outside in the freezing cold lining up for an Otsu concert was not something he cared to dwell on. In an irrational moment of annoyance at the enthusiasm to which China girl and the glasses spoke about the upcoming concert Sougo had declared that he wanted to attend also. He'd never had a problem with how close the two family like friends were previously but recently it had been getting on his nerves and as a result he'd been making stupid rash decisions based on the fact. Anything involving the China girl recently had been causing him stress and completely ruining his life. How he wanted to just throw the girl off a cliff and never see her stupid smug face again.

The line finally began moving and Sougo heaved a sigh of relief, his companions excited chatter was really grating on his nerves. The very sight of the glasses was making him murderous at this point.

"Sadist!" Sougo turned at the mention of his name, "what song do you wanna hear most? I'm _so_ excited!"

Sougo was caught off guard momentarily by the sheer joy present in Kagura's bright azure eyes but he simply turned his head and said, "don't care. They all sound the same."

This caused the glasses to launch into a ten-minute long tangent about how every single lyric of Otsu's was pure genius and 'if he ever dare disrespect Otsu-chan again he would have to take serious measures'. Like the glasses could lay a finger on him.

During the tangent the trio managed to make it inside, find their seats and settle in for the concert. The minute they got to their seats, however, Sougo just about threw the glasses-stand off the balcony and onto the ground below.

When he'd first heard the two teenagers talking about the concert he'd assumed they were going alone and therefore would be spending the entire concert alone together. So when he saw not only the Princess's shining face but also that stupid Takichow, or Tokichi, or whatever friend of the glasses' he felt a wave of murderous irritation roll over him.

"I didn't know you liked Otsu-chan, Okita?" Soyo asked innocently.

Sougo spent the next three hours imagining ways to kill someone else other than Hijikata for the first time in his life.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Eighteen/Prince**

The day she turned eighteen she always thought that she would meet a wonderful prince who would come out of no where to sweep her off her feet and would make her world shine brighter in ways she'd never thought possible since she'd have gained some worldly perspective from finally becoming an adult.

So why was it that on her first day as an official adult that she found herself stuck alone with an annoying sadist while her foster father, family – both surrogate and biological, and friends were all busy. She knew it was a week day and in a busy time but come on it was her _eighteenth birthday!_

"Stop sulking, China, and just eat your damn cake." Her only company said flatly while he poked at his own piece of cake.

Kagura groaned loudly, "this _sucks!"_

Sougo ignored her and continued eating silently.

"What the hell?" She yelled in frustration, "it's my eighteenth birthday and I'm stuck here with you!" She looked at him blankly, "and why are you even here anyway? Don't you have school?"

"You skipped school." He reminded her nonchalantly.

"But that doesn't explain why _you_ did!"

"I didn't, I've just finished all my upcoming assignments so I don't have to be there to study."

"Oh." Kagura said meekly, knowing damn well she was behind on every single one of her assignments. The realisation just made her already sucky birthday even worse. She dropped her head onto the table melodramatically, "this is the _worst._ "

"You got to go to that stupid Otsu concert, isn't that why Boss and the others said you've already had your birthday celebration?"

The way the Sadist was calmly eating his cake was starting to piss Kagura off.

" _Yes!_ Why did you even come if you thought it was stupid?"

Sougo shrugged, "it's fun to watch simple people get excited over simple things."

Kagura glared at him through slitted eyes, "well you don't have to be here right _now!_ Go study or whatever and _stop eating my cake!"_

"Alright." Sougo placed down his fork politely and stood up.

Kagura was surprised at how easy that was and begin eating her own cake in silence while she watched the flaxen haired boy search for something in his school bag.

He retrieved a small parcel wrapped with orange gift paper and extended it towards her, "here."

She looked at it in confusion, sure it was a bomb or a prank, "what is it?"

Sougo pushed it towards her again, "a present," the way he spoke implying she was a moron, "people tend to receive them on their birthday's. Didn't realise how unpopular you actually are, China."

Kagura rolled her eyes, "I _know_ that, but why are _you_ giving me a present?"

"'Cause it's your birthday." The boy said simply and dumbfounded Kagura took the present.

She turned it over gingerly in her hands and heard Sougo begin to leave.

"You're going now?"

Sougo looked at her with that blank stare that seemed to convey 'idiot' without words, "didn't you just ask me to a minute ago?"

"Oh, right."

"Goodbye, China." The Sadist said retreating back to his own home next door, "happy birthday."

As Kagura opened the present to find a small phone charm in the shape of a pig she found herself thinking that princes on noble steeds were overrated.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed this and see you next time (which will be soon if I can!)**

 **Thanks as always for reading this and please review to let me know you enjoyed it or not!**

 **xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	11. 10: Alien and Human

**Holy shit so I'm back finally!**

 **Seriously I worked all damn holiday's and ironically haven't had enough time to write this until uni started hahahaha what is my life. Anyway I hope this chapter (the school trip edition I call it lol) makes up for it! There's a fair bit of moooooshy stuff in this chapter but don't get used to it it won't be like this again for a while it just sets some stuff up for the next few chapters. I think there's going to be about five more chapters there's lots of things I want to write so this could go up but if I keep going with six themes per chapter and keep running low on time like I am I might wrap it up earlier (cause let's be honest with Kagura being Kagura this story could potentially go forever) or if you guys are happy with slower updates I may keep it going for a while. Anyway, see how we go there's still a while left anyway!**

 **Enjoy this themed chapter and I'll be waiting to hear from you (reviews keep me coming back tbh the people who've reviewed this week thnx for making me want to come back and finally finish this chapter)**

* * *

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own Sadaharu and his beautiful canine ways**_

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.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Tourist/Bus**

"Now everyone make sure to stick with your groups! We'll be arriving in twenty minutes." Gintoki called from the front of the bus.

Kagura bounced excitedly in her seat, chattering with Soyo when they passed something interesting and barely able to keep herself from jumping up every time Shinpachi pointed something out.

She'd been looking forward to the class trip for the past month or so and now that it was finally here she was struggling to contain her excitement.

The sounds of excited students filled the bus and the overall atmosphere was ripe with anticipation. The only thing that could possibly damper Kagura's mood right now was her group assignment.

They'd been allowed to choose their own groups and Kagura had quickly team up with Soyo and Nobume her usual suspects. However, the group had to be even in male's and female's this meant that Kagura was to be stuck with the only male's she knew well enough in their rather divided class: Shinpachi and Sougo. Shinpachi was fine or preferable even as he organised everything and made sure to take on all the crappy jobs that no one else wanted. Sougo, on the other hand, was a pain in the ass being the sadistic little shit that he was and making every decision about their group's activities harder than they had to be. The other male in their group, Saitou, was a friend of the Sadist's and Kagura couldn't recall a time she had ever heard him speak but he still managed to get on her nerves with his stupid "zzzzz". It was either him or Shinpachi's otsu loving friend so she guessed the silent presence was better than the fangirling nuisance.

Shinpachi and Takachin suddenly became very loud and excitable in their seats as they started fawning over an Otsu billboard.

Kagura was actually rather content this time when Sougo, irritable from being woken up from his sleep, leaned across the isle and pushed the two of them harshly into the window before leaning back in his own seat and returning the red eye mask back to it's place over his eyes, sleeping soundly next to Saitou.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Mortality**

It was utter chaos the moment the students of class 3z escaped their metal chariot and were let loose upon the unsuspecting hotel they were staying at for the next few days. Girls ran in large groups in and out of rooms 'ooooing' and 'aaaaahing' about this view and that bed set up. Boys made nuisances of themselves in any way they found appropriate including tipping over a very expensive statue in the first five minutes of being in the building. Couples snuck off to secluded locations for alone time while their teachers were distracted with their rowdy classmates. All in all it was a total nightmare for the hotel staff as they looked at 3z's guardian for help and received nothing more than a shrug of acknowledgement as he sucked on a suspicious looking lollypop.

Some classes were much more well behaved, probably thanks to their teachers being the likes of people like Tsukuyo and Zenzou, while others were almost as bad if not worse than 3z being headed by Sarutobi or affectionately named 'Sacchan' and a strange man no one knew the real name of but everyone called Idiot Prince.

Amongst the chaos Kagura thrived. She ran amok with Nobume in tow as the two explored every inch of the hotel trying to find the best room before any other girl group could take it from them. To hell with room assignments they were getting a room fit for the queens they were. It wasn't so hard to pressure whatever group was assigned their desired room what with their combined reputations – Kagura's for being violent and Nobume's for being purely insane.

While Nobume, Soyo and the other girls who had been put in the room with them begrudgingly unpacked Kagura found herself distracted by the window in the hallway. She could see that it connected to some sort of landing and was curious to know where it lead to.

She approached the window slowly and eased it open to get a better look. Her eyes caught upon the ladder to her left and she grinned wickedly as she imagined climbing through her foster fathers room at nighttime and scaring him half to death.

The red-headed girl grasped onto the railing tightly and began pulling herself up towards the ladder. Halfway out of the window she realised that the landing wasn't as stable as she'd originally thought, in fact there was an enormous hole directly beneath the ladder, which had began swinging the moment she rested her entire body weight upon it. In a split second decision she made to climb back through the window to safety only to have the sudden shift of weight rock the ladder away from the wall.

A shrill scream escaped her throat and in the next moment where the ladder swung rapidly away from the wall she found a strong hand gripping onto her arm and hauling her back through the window.

She breathed quickly against the shoulder of a very familiar smelling boy, "what the hell, China? As if you thought that rusty ladder could hold your fat piggy self." The voice breathed heavily, all sarcasm lost in the way his voice shook slightly from exhaustion and stress.

Too shocked to retort, Kagura simply huffed and took a deep breath to steady herself, "I thought the ladder was safe."

Kagura thought she could hear a smile in the Sadist's voice, "obviously not."

If asked later Kagura would say it was the shock of realising how fragile mortality really was, and Sougo would say it was the adrenaline wearing off to what happened next.

The two stayed like that, Kagura pressed against Sougo's shoulder breathing deeply and Sougo's cheek rested lightly against her hair, until Soyo came into the hallway and asked, "am I interrupting something?"

Kagura immediately jumped away, Sougo maintaining an expressionless face, "merely me doing my daily service to the misfortunate by saving a pig from committing accidental suicide."

The bickering began instantly and lasted all the while til Gintoki came and collected the class for their first day of field trip activities.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Messages**

Shinpachi Shimura to 'Group 4': Where is everyone? We were supposed to meet in front of the entrance at 2pm.

Kagura Sakata: donuts

Shinpachi Shimura: What?

Nobume Imai: get lost we're busy

Kagura Sakata: donuts

Soyo Tokugawa: we've stopped at the donut stand; we'll be sure to come once Nobume and Kagura-chan are finished :)

Shinpachi Shimura: Thank you, Soyo-chan. We were supposed to meet ten minutes ago please tell them to hurry! The teachers are taking head count and where are Okita and Saitou?

 _Kagura Sakata sent a gif_

Shinpachi Shimura: That is a picture of a donut, Kagura-chan.

Sougo Okita: has your brain finally melted from all the crap you eat, China?

 _Kagura Sakata sent a gif_

Shinpachi Shimura: Kagura-chan!

Nobume Imai: lol you offended the glasses

Shimaru Saitou: zzzzz

Sougo Okita: we ain't coming four-eyes so don't bother waiting

Shinpachi Shimura: But we have to meet at the designated time!

Sougo Okita: there's more chance of you losing your virginity than me coming right now

Shimaru Saitou: zzz

 _Nobume Imai named the group "Shut up Glasses"_

Kagura Sakata: lol

Soyo Tokugawa: I didn't know you could change the group name, let me try

Shinpachi Shimura: Yes, please change it to something reasonable, Soyo-chan!

Shimaru Saitou: zzzzz

 _Soyo Tokugawa named the group "Shinpachi is a nark"_

Kagura Sakata: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Nobume Imai: rofl

Sougo Okita: it's not funny if it's true

 _Kagura Sakata changed Sougo's nickname to "Sadist"_

 _Sougo Okita changed Kagura's nickname to "flat chested pig"_

 _Kagura Sakata changed Sougo's nickname to "annoying brat"_

 _Sougo Okita changed Kagura's nickname to "ugly girl"_

 _Kagura Sakata changed Sougo's nickname to "useless tax robber"_

 _Nobume Imai changed Soyo's nickname to "Princess"_

 _Sougo Okita changed Kagura's nickname to "queen of the pigs"_

Shimaru Saitou: zzzz

Shinpachi Shimura: The teacher is coming, can everyone stop messing around and come back here now!

 _Kagura Sakata changed Sougo's nickname to "prince of sadists"_

 _Shinpachi Shimura changed his own nickname to "Shin-chan"_

 _Nobume Imai changed Shinpachi's nickname to "glasses"_

 _Soyo Tokugawa changed Shinpachi's nickname to "mum"_

 _Okita Sougo changed Shinpachi's nickname to "glasses stand"_

 _Nobume Imai changed Shinpachi's nickname to "ugly otaku"_

 _Okita Sougo changed Shinpachi's nickname to "most hated man in Japan"_

 _Nobume Imai changed Shinpachi's nickname to "definition of desperation"_

 _Soyo Tokugawa changed Shinpachi's nickname to "girl repellent"_

 _Kagura Sakata changed Shinpachi's nickname to "virgin"_

Shimaru Saitou: zzzzz

 _Shinpachi Shimura has left the group_

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Astronomy/smile**

The winter air was chilly as Sougo waited outside on the fire escape, leaning against the window ledge softly. The noise of nocturnal animals being the only thing that broke the still silence, that was until the window opened with a loud squeal and a red-headed girl came tumbling out uttering several words too rude from her mouth.

"Ow, dammit, Sadist move!" Kagura groaned as she hauled herself onto the fire escape into the space Sougo had just made.

She collapsed onto the ground with a muffled _thud_ and proceeded to straighten herself up. She fixed her bright azure eyes on the waiting boy, "what the hell is so important that you had to wake me up at 2am?"

The boy regarded her impassively with his cold red eyes, before nudging his head towards the stairs and motioning for her to follow.

She followed his silent back as they made their way up the stairs and came onto a large roof. Sougo stepped aside and let the girl get the full view from the rooftop over looking the city.

Kagura's breath left her as she stared into the open night sky, taking in the bright city lights that seemed to stretch for kilometres and watching the way the stars, while muted by the city haze, still twinkled in and out of existence with every heart beat.

"Wow." The red headed girl breathed with awe still caught up in the view.

Sougo, on the other hand, thought that her figure so full of wonder and innocence was the view.

The flaxen haired boy couldn't seem to drag his eyes away from her expression, watching the way the stars reflected on her face and was blown away for a moment at how much he truly adored the China girl.

He wasn't sure what had possessed him to bring her up there or why he found himself up there in the first place, he only knew as soon as he saw it he had to share it with her knowing she appreciated the little things and would treasure the sight forever.

He couldn't even bring himself to care how much trouble they'd get in if Gintoki or any other teacher found out they were up here. It didn't matter to him what she thought of him either, or whom she was with or even who was most important to her in that moment. All that mattered to him was that she always smiled even if it wasn't directed at him.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Sabotage**

All that could be heard were the excited sounds of students around the tourist hotspots. But while his classmates took in the sights they were offered Sougo couldn't take his eyes off a different kind of sight.

A boy. A boy talking to China. _His_ China.

It was a guy from class 3c, the one run by Sacchan that perverted masochist ninja wannabe, who seemed to know China from some radio exercise thing they did years ago. His name was Hiroshi, or Higasho or Hisoka or something Sougo didn't really care. What he _did_ care about was the slimy hand currently resting on her back in a not so innocent way that was being totally perceived as innocent by the dense China girl.

Sougo inhaled deeply, resisting the urge to drag his hand through his hair, and tried searching for Saitou in the crowd of students.

Kagura's loud laughter snapped his attention back towards them again and this time he couldn't ignore the hand resting on her shoulder possessively. Sougo fought with himself momentarily before losing and making his way towards the pair.

The red-headed girl noticed him immediately upon arrival and scowled, "lonely, Sadist?"

Sougo rolled his eyes but didn't miss the way the Hisoka guy eyed him nervously but in an annoyed way at the same time. The flaxen haired boy revelled in the nervousness he'd caused his rival – not rival because that would imply they were competing for something and Sougo definitely did _not_ want the China girl, no matter what he did to suggest otherwise.

He just didn't want _other_ people to have her.

Especially not this greasy monkey who seemed to think he was good enough for her, hell he wasn't even worth her attention let alone her everything. No one was.

For the next two hours Sougo spent his time following the pair around and sabotaging any attempt the other guy made towards Kagura and turning her attention on him by annoying her to the point where he begun to get extremely frustrated and physical towards Sougo.

It wasn't until the pig girl decided she wanted some ice cream that it really went up in flames. Kagura, of course, didn't have any money so told Sougo to buy her some ice cream. As expected Higoshi offered to get it and the two boys were treated to the sight of Kagura making love to a paddle pop stick. After a minute of watching Hitoshi oogle Kagura's lips, Sougo quite blatantly pushed Kagura so that her ice cream would land on her chest and uniform.

There was a moment of silence before she spat out evenly, "do you have a death wish, Sadist?"

"It was be covered in ice cream or my vomit, China. Which would've you preferred?"

"I'm going to kill you!" Kagura flew at Sougo in a fit of rage and having had enough Hisoka threw his hands up in frustration, deciding the China girl wasn't worth the trouble he guessed, and stormed off.

Sougo snorted as he fended a very angry China off of him, knowing full to well the China girl was worth every single piece of the trouble she caused.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Reject**

The students of class 3z were happy to finally be released from the bus upon arriving back in Tokyo.

Kagura stretched her arms out wide and leaned her forehead on Soyo's chest, "I'm so tired, I can't believe we have to go to school tomorrow."

Soyo patted the red-headed girl's head reassuringly before pulling away, "my brother's here to get me, I'll see you tomorrow, Kagura-chan."

Kagura waved her off and turned her attention to a flaxen haired boy, "Oi Sadist, let's go home!"

Sougo turned to look at her with his usual blank expression before turning away again to say something to Nobume.

Kagura frowned as she approached, watching the two of them converse back and forth. When she reached the pair she sensed a mood of unease.

"Go with Glasses, China." The Sadist said with his usual air of nonchalance but Kagura could tell he was distracted.

"What's up?" Kagura asked looking between the two of them. It was one of her best friends and the Sadist after all they would tell her if it was important.

Nobume shrugged in response and Sougo looked at her again blankly repeating, "go with Glasses, I'll see you later." Before turning and walking away with Nobume at his side.

Kagura didn't understand the strange wave of rejection that washed over her as she watched Sougo walk away with Nobume. They were nothing more than simple childhood rivals, friends at best, so why did she feel so uneasy when he chose to leave with Nobume than fight with her like he did every other day? She couldn't find an answer to her question nor was she sure she wanted to so even though she couldn't fight with the Sadist that day she did find amusement in bullying poor Shinpachi as he showed her home. Although she would admit that it wasn't anywhere near as amusing as wasting time fighting with the Sadist – he could actually put up a counter fight.

.

~~o~~o~~

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* * *

 **Thanks for reading and please do leave me a review it'll keep me motivated!**

 **Thanks always xoxoxoxo**


	12. 11: Hero and Heroine

**It's been so long and I am the worst! I'm so sorry but I've been so busy it's the end of the semester and I've had so many assignments not to mention I'm working all the damn time! Thank you to all the people who reviewed last time there were heaps! If anyone's still with me after this long here's the next chapter! It's really long to hopefully make up for the long break! It's not the most serious chapter, I wanted to add some fun back in since the stories have all been very serious lately but it's only a short break before the real shit that basically begins next chapter as we've hit the half way mark of what I wanted to write.**

 **This chapter one of these stories is something that happened to me 10 points if you can guess which one (extra points if you guess if it was with a boy or a girl/friend or boyfriend)! Also I've decided to make it near the end of their second term so around the beginning of December since Kagura's birthday is in November and that's long been now that's the point in time we are at. I know the story is moving forward in time but it also feels like it isn't at the same time I did that on purpose as I don't want to deal with things such as Graduation but I figured I should at least give you guys a kind of idea what part of the time line the characters are currently in. (Also sorry for any mix ups December is summer here so it's super hot and if I slip up and say the characters are hot or at the beach that's why! Also as I'm writing this it's warm here so hard to wrap my head around hahaha. Also also the story that's my real experience was in summer not winter so sorry for any mix ups!)**

 **Thanks and enjoy!**

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.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Cookies**

Nobume had been laughing at the colour of Kagura's phone for twenty minutes and Sougo was ready to hit her. He would've too, if only he could lift his arm high enough but the damn thing felt heavy as lead it was all he could do to manage to sit upright at the moment.

Kagura on the other hand was too busy eating anything that came in her path while Shinpachi chastised her in-between giggles of his own.

Why oh why the group had decided to eat the cookies that Soyo had shown up holding all the while smiling suspiciously was something he'd come to regret immensely. Around half an hour after consumption of the disgusting, slightly green, cookies Yamazaki had begun giggling rather strangely while staring at Kagura. Now Sougo can understand why you'd laugh at the China girl's face but this was beyond strange. Next Kagura had done the same thing while trying to tell him to stop, then Nobume, then Shinpachi, and then Soyo and you get the picture.

There was no way in hell Sougo was going to be caught giggling so he'd kept his mouth shut the entire time all the while resisting the urge to lay down and sleep or eat everything he could get a hold of like the China girl.

He supposed the only thing to do was the wait out the damn substance or sleep, the second option didn't look too appealing however as the moment Soyo had begun to sleep she woke up and spent twenty minutes vomiting to which no one had seen her since.

Yamazaki had long since fallen asleep in a bush after Kagura had kicked him in and Sougo only hoped the Glasses sister wouldn't come home soon to find her little brother and a bunch of teenagers baked beyond belief in her yard.

The group was slowly dying out one by one; Soyo was the first to go, then Shinpachi soon after passing out underneath the step to the house, Saitou, who had been silently making weird 'z' giggling noises, fell asleep sitting upright in his chair until the only one's left where a very delirious Nobume, a ravenous China girl and Sougo himself.

Sougo and Kagura were obviously the most with it, having had the least of the cookies, and were in some sort of silent agreement that they had to beat the other one by staying awake the longest. Nobume, clearly having no such qualms, soon hit the vomiting stage, running to the bathroom, while Kagura and Sougo had a silent stare off.

Around thirty minutes passed where Kagura continued to magically find food, even eating a frozen croissant at one point, and Sougo sat in silence.

This continued for a few minutes longer before Kagura groaned, "I just want it to be over!"

Sougo opened his mouth to do the same but remembered the giggling everyone made every time they tried to speak and clamped it firmly shut. He nodded instead.

"This is horrible!" Kagura continued in a weird supressed laughing voice, "my brain still works but my body is so _heavy_!" She whined, "I just wanna feel normal again!"

Kagura had a point for the first time in her life, Sougo thought.

She fixed her bright azure eyes on him with a glare, slightly droopy but still vicious, "you are the biggest nark on the planet." She started, "even cooked you're still straight faced as hell! You're so _boring,_ Sadist!"

Sadistic, fine. Annoying, sure. But boring? For some reason this struck a nerve, all he could hear in his head was Hijikata, or was it Kondou, echoing similar words, "you can't be so boring, Sougo, you've got to enjoy the little things."

Sougo narrowed his eyes, or tried to, "I'll show you boring, China brat."

Kagura's face froze immediately and Sougo realised what he'd done.

"You just giggl-"

"I did not."

"You did."

"No I didn't."

"You just did it again!"

This was how Kagura won for the first time in her life and out stayed Sougo awake and managed to hear the most beautiful sound she'd always treasure – a brat giggling.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Mum**

Shinpachi liked to nag.

Sometimes he nagged for hours. Sometimes he nagged for days. Sometimes he nagged so much that Kagura wondered if this was what it was like to have a wife when you were a deadbeat (Madao).

At least twice a day you would hear the sound of Shinpachi nagging followed closely by "Patsuan, let me sleep just a little longer!" or "Shinpachi, strawberry milk is important for a man's growth!" or even "Stop nagging, Patsuan, you'll never leave the virgin ranks if you keep this up!"

All to which Kagura would giggle silently (rather haughtily) and escape before the glasses wearing nark turned his motherly hassling on her.

This particular occasion it was Kagura and a certain Sadist getting their ears chewed out by a very angry, he was probably pmsing Kagura thought, Shinpachi who looked ready to blow a casket. Who cares if they broke public property? It was only a very tiny, very small, park bench, attached to a very little, hardly important, statue of some _Shogun_ from the Edo period who looked suspiciously like Soyo's older brother, but anyway not important.

The Sadist duo had been listening to the simmering boy spit profanities and insults at them, lecturing them repeatedly about how 'he'd snapped' and he'd 'had enough' or whatever, Kagura had stopped listening around a minute in.

The Sadist deadpanned in one of Shinpachi's pauses from yelling, "can we go yet? I'm hungry."

Kagura nodded her head solemnly in silent agreement, which only caused Shinpachi's eyebrow to twitch, and a whole new wave of yelling to come about.

Sougo looked sideways at Kagura, blood red eyes meeting bright azure ones, and Kagura got the message loud and clear.

Neither of them may have a mother but god knows Shinpachi tried his best to behave like theirs. Kagura found herself smiling against her will, swearing she saw a smile cross Sougo's face at the same moment. Shinpachi, of course, caught the silent exchange and grew angrier only causing the fit to last another ten long minutes.

Her mother may have died when she was young, and the Sadist may have lost his sister the closest thing he had to a mother, but at least they both still had Shinpachi.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Slow Down/Nowhere and Nothing**

Sometimes Kagura just wanted the world to slow down.

Sometimes, when everything got too much and life made it hard for her to breathe all she wanted was for the world to stop and everyone to just stay still for a moment. Just a moment to take it all in and let it begin again.

Sometimes things felt like the world was moving too quickly for her and she had too many things to focus on but at the same time it was going nowhere and she had nothing.

Sometimes she felt like she was living in a void.

And whenever she did, whenever she wanted to world to just slow down and _breathe,_ somehow a certain Sadist was always there to fill the void left in the world's wake.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Calling**

"Come on, China, pick up your damn phone!" The flaxen haired boy grunted out harshly.

He rang the number again after leaving almost twenty texts consisting of: "pick up your phone", "answer your damn phone, China!", "I know pigs don't sleep early so just answer your stupid phone!".

Finally, _finally,_ after the fourth ring a very disgruntled voice asked, "what the hell do you want Sadist?" A pause, "it's four in the goddamn morning!"

Sougo breathed out a sigh of relief, "don't ask questions I just need you to come pick me up."

"What the hell?" Came the now more alert voice, "why would I pick you up, call the damn Gorilla or Mayo King to do that I'm not your mum!"

Sougo growled impatiently, "don't you think I would've done that if I could? I can't, now just come pick me up."

"Don't want to." Kagura sniffed, "I'm going back to sleep, have fun walking, Sadist."

"China!" Sougo snapped, "come get me," there was a long pause "please?"

Only silence could be heard through the phone until a smug voice eventually said, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, could you repeat it, _please?"_

"Don't make me murder you, you damn pig."

"You're the one asking me for a favour here, brat!"

"Fine, just come get me, ok?"

"Where are you anyway?"

Sougo looked around, he was in a very dimly lit alleyway with nothing more than his phone and what he guessed constituted as his wallet with him. "Some alley near the Pachinko."

Kagura paused, "why ar-"

"Don't ask." Sougo interrupted.

A sigh was heard through the phone, "ok. How am I even meant to get down there, I failed my driving test remember?"

Sougo snorted, "like that's ever stopped you before. Hijikata's car should be at our house, he keeps his keys in the vase next to the phone."

"Hang on a second."

The phone made a _thump_ sound as it was obviously put down followed by rustling and some indiscreet banging that sounded like a window being forced open. Several minutes later the phone was picked up again and a out of breath female voice said, "got 'em." Sougo resisted the urge to laugh, of course China broke into his house and stole Hijikata's car keys, never mind the fact she didn't have a license. This was part of the reason he asked her.

Some more rustling was produced and the sound of a door slamming could be heard, "I'll be there in like ten, behind the Pachinko place you said?"

"Yes, just _hurry."_ Sougo grunted out impatiently.

"I expect one-hundred dollars worth of free _sukonbu_ " Kagura demanded haughtily.

"Ok, ok, whatever, just come get me quickly."

"I'm not done." The girl cut him off, "you must refer to me as Mistress for the rest of the week."

"No way in hell." Was the immediate response.

The sound of tires squealing could be heard and Sougo thought briefly that it was a blessing to mankind that Kagura didn't get her license.

"I'm not picking you up then."

Sougo inhaled deeply to calm his nerves, "not Mistress, anything but Mistress."

"Ok," came the bright reply and Sougo immediately regretted his choice of words, "Your Highness it is. Kagura, Your Highness, Queen of the Kabuki-cho – take your pick."

"Fine," Sougo swallowed, "Kagura."

The phone went silent again before a voice Sougo suspected was embarrassed said, "I take it back, Kagura isn't an option."

Sougo smirked briefly but was distracted by the sounds of footsteps heading quickly in his direction.

"Shit," he swore, ducking around the corner and onto the street, "how far away are you, China?"

"It's Your Highness!"

"Whatever, where the hell are you Queen of the Pigs?!" Sougo was breathing heavily and barrelling quickly down another alley away from the fast approaching footsteps.

"I'm in front of the Pachin- wait I think I can see you!"

Sure enough Sougo looked up to see a car waiting by the alley just twenty metres away. Not only that, a bright shiny police car with sirens whirling loudly, how he had missed it before he had no idea but now it looked like a shining carriage taking him to heaven.

He headed towards it as fast as his legs could take him and threw himself inside the cab when Kagura opened the passenger door.

"Go, now!" He urged, almost breaking his deadpan façade.

"Flooring it!" Kagura yelled as she swung the car into reverse, almost hitting two of Sougo's pursuers in the process before swinging it back into drive and flooring it down the road as she promised.

Sougo leaned back in his seat and sighed in relief, "took you long enough."

Kagura, red hair a mess from sleep, eyes flashing dangerously, and sadistic smile firmly in place, laughed loudly, "Without me you'd be dead meat, Sadist! You should be thanking me!"

Sougo mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "thanks, you flat chested pig."

"I know you said 'don't ask' but I just have one question for you," Sougo looked at Kagura in confusion. The girl pointed to his feet, "why do you only have one shoe?"

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Relationship**

Kagura didn't know what it meant to be in a relationship. Watching Gin-chan and Tsukky only seemed to confuse her even more. The way she smiled at him when he wasn't looking, or how he seemed to always be watching her every movement, it made no sense to her.

How could they possibly be so completely and utterly defenceless around each other? Kagura couldn't imagine ever being that vulnerable with anyone. Especially not considering the past she'd had, and she would've thought the same about her guardian and his girlfriend considering their dark pasts Gin-chan had vaguely mentioned to her once.

It baffled her.

Shinpachi said it was because they trusted each other that they could be that way. Soyo-chan said it was because they were in love. Big Sis said it was _because_ it was the other person for them that they could be that way.

The last one confused Kagura the most. Why did it make a difference who the other person was? She couldn't imagine any person who could make her want to let every one of her guards down and trust them completely.

Kagura was pulled from her thoughts suddenly when she found herself standing atop a high ledge. She may have been agile normally and able to manoeuvre her way down with ease but she was still recovering from her brawl with Nobume in P.E. today where she'd hurt her ankle. The drop looked too large for her to jump in this condition and risk hurting her ankle further. She sighed and looked for a way to get down without hurting herself.

"Stuck, China?" Came an obnoxious voice that could only belong to one person.

She stuck her tongue out at the flaxen haired boy who was standing at the bottom of the ledge with a smug smile, "piss off, Sadist."

He raised an eyebrow, "don't want my help then?"

She scoffed, "like I'd accept help from a sadistic brat!"

Sougo shrugged and threw his bag over his shoulder, "alright, see you later then." He smiled cruelly as he turned, "if you ever manage to find a way down."

As he began walking away Kagura yelled out against her better judgement, "wait!"

Sougo turned slowly, smug smile still in place.

"Um," Kagura began.

"Yes?"

Damn his smug smile, "could you get me down?"

"I'm sorry, that wasn't quite clear, could you repeat that?"

Kagura inhaled deeply to calm herself, "could you get me down _please?"_ She added, "stupid Sadist" for good measure.

Sougo dropped his bag and opened his arms with all seriousness. Kagura stared at him like he had two heads. After a few seconds of hesitation Sougo became impatient and said, "if you're not going to jump I'm going home."

"Fine, fine!" Kagura snapped, "just give me a moment!"

Sougo made a face as if to say, 'hurry up'.

"You'd better not drop me?"

The Sadist rolled his eyes, "just get on with it would you."

Without another moment's hesitation Kagura flung herself off the ledge. There was a moment where she was suspended in mid air before she crashed into the boy's solid chest and felt his arms wrap around her instantly.

He released her immediately and she took a step backwards, or more like hobbled.

The flaxen haired boy picked up his bag without a moments notice and turned to make his way home, not before turning to the stationary girl and saying, "you coming?"

Kagura blinked herself out of her trance and quickly followed after the boy spitting out sarcastically, "I had to wipe the stink of brat off me."

Sougo snorted, "like it's that easy to get the stench of a pig off me."

Kagura ignored his jab, as she was too preoccupied with the smacking realisation that she trusted the Sadist. Maybe even completely.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed and remember guess which one happened to me!**

 **Please review and hopefully I'll see you soon!**

 **Thanks xoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	13. 12: Queen and King

**So guess who's updating after 500000 years! ok so hear me out if you're even still with me haha I'm actually in America on exchange right now so I haven't had an awful lot of time to myself to do things like write but I've been slowly working on these prompts one by one, i'm not by any means abandoning this story even if you guys aren't still with me cause i love this story and i love writing it!**

 **But yeah they're all relatively long which I hope satisfies you guys! Also from this point onward I'll be exploring Kagura's feelings so yeah it's winding up but never fear I'm far from finished! Kagura is gonna be a slooooooow burn**

 **As always, enjoy!**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful Gintama children

* * *

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Jealousy**

It was becoming ridiculous just how dense the red headed girl was.

Sougo Okita, the proud man that he was, was literally outright _jealous_ over Kagura and everyone with a pair of eyes could see it. Except for her, that is.

Her childhood friend from before she'd moved in with Gintoki had come to visit for the weekend and had been staying with the Sakata's, something that Sougo had been none too pleased about. He was a sickly child that had grown into a well-rounded handsome boy, Kagura seemed to notice this but she wasn't the only one.

All of the Sakata's friends had gathered at their house on the Sunday for a dinner to celebrate Gintoki and Tsukuyo's engagement and Tae that sadistic woman that she was had been throwing hints that Kagura would one day marry Higashi giving Sougo a meaningful look every single time. Higashi didn't seem to be against the idea and Kagura hadn't made any moves to deny or acknowledge the sentiment either. Of course, that could be because she was too dense to even notice it was happening.

Sougo had long stopped being subtle declaring things like "China, no man would want to deal with your stupid self for their entire lives" and "you should lock down any man who can handle you as soon as you can". No one ever said he was nice about it. At one point he literally said, to which the girl had completely missed still no one would understand after she'd said no one would ever marry her, "I guess I'll take you, I even have a house set up, it comes with an iron bar fence and three square meals a day" (I COULDN'T RESIST). Kagura had ignored the marriage part of the equation and instead listened to the insult.

Of all the guests gathered to watch this disaster of a courtship unravel; Soyo couldn't help but feel sorry for the smitten fool, Gin was quickly losing his sense of astonishment and becoming exasperated, Nobume still found it hilarious hoping she never caught on, Tae seemed to share this sediment, Kondou – bless his soul – was almost as dense as the young red head was, Hijikata and Tsukuyo just thinking he should give up and Shinpachi, well, he just hated every single one of them at that point.

"Oi Pig girl, pass the salt."

"What did you just say?"

"It's practice for when you're married."

"Why the hell would you care?"

Everyone groaned but Nobume who began laughing again.

Sougo had a long fight ahead of him.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Studying**

"x isn't a letter, for the last time."

"And I've told you _I_ _don't know_ _what_ _the hell_ you're talking about!"

"It's not that hard, China."

"You do it then!"

"That's what I've been trying to do for the last three hours but none of this is getting through your tiny little brain."

"It's not my fault you're a shitty teacher!"

"And it's not my fault you're too stupid to understand simple Maths. No actually it's my fault for thinking a pig could learn Maths."

"What did you just say?"

"You heard it. You're an idiot."

At that point the small table the two teens were working on was flipped harshly by a very pissed off girl, followed by her school books as she flung them at her so called teacher.

The fight lasted for around a minute before thumping was heard on the door and Gintoki yelled, "cut it out, you two, I'm trying to sleep dammit!"

The fighting would then cease and studying would resume only for the entire cycle to repeat itself another twenty minutes later when either Sougo got fed up with Kagura's inability to understand something or Kagura got sick of Sougo's superior attitude.

Why Sougo was tutoring Kagura for their final exams was due to a bet he'd lost to her a week prior and both were regretting the outcome immensely.

Sougo sighed, "it's 2am, China, can you just calm down and listen to me while I try to explain this to you?"

Azure eyes looked at him suspiciously, "why? What are you going to do to me?"

"I don't know, _teach_ you something."

Kagura played along suspiciously and settled down to actually _listen_ to Sougo rather than just watching impatiently or pretending to follow and found that she actually understood some of what he was saying, not that she told him that.

Once Sougo finally got Kagura to pay attention he found himself easily swept into explaining different equations and theories and from then on the two studied quietly into the night only stopping when a particular problem was too hard or Sougo needed a rest.

Sougo was so absorbed in his teaching that it was about five minutes before he realised the red headed girl had fallen asleep mid question with no sign of waking up anytime soon. He checked the clock, 5:13am, and decided she probably wouldn't be worthwhile waking at this point to teach. She was stupid enough as it is even when fully functioning.

The girl's even breathing caught his attention and he found himself distracted by the way the piece of red hair laying across her face fluttered as she breathed in and out. He watched her fluttering eyelids and noticed just how pale and delicate her skin actually was. Something about the girl's relaxed and dreaming face soothed him deeply. She was beautiful. But then, she was always beautiful to him.

That was how Gintoki found them three hours later; both face down on the coffee table in Kagura's room surrounded by text books and pencils.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Slave**

"Fetch me another drink, bitch!"

"Yes Queen!"

The red headed girl cackled as she watched the middle-aged sunglasses scramble to make her another fruity punch while her guardian and adoptive brother watched on with disgust and thinly veiled delight.

"I wish I could say I wasn't enjoying this." Shinpachi muttered under his breath to the white haired male who in turn nodded slowly.

"This is by far the most disturbing thing I've ever seen but I don't want it to stop." Gintoki said while watching the scene with rapped attention, "what kind of monster have I created?"

"You practically raised us both how did she end up so screwed up?" Continued the glasses, too awed to realise he was inadvertently admitting his admiration to the older man; the older man himself too enthralled to notice either.

"Kagura," Gin drawled while approaching the indignant red head slowly, "it's time to let MADAO get back to the park, he has lots of old ladies to harass today…"

The self declared turned her sharp glare on her father like figure, "I'm getting hungry," her voice was low and deadly, "bring me _sukonbu_."

Shinpachi was gone by the time Kagura could turn her head in his direction, god forbid anyone ever make a bet against the Queen of the _Kabuki-cho._

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Shadows/Midnight**

Kagura's window had been suspiciously noisy for the past minute or so and when it finally cracked open followed by a muted thumping and a dull thud of something dropping onto the floor the girl flew from her bed ready to attack.

She threw her fist at the intruder connecting with solid jaw followed by a cry of "What the hell, China?"

"Sadist?" The girl asked in confusing, making out the vague shape of the boy she knew so well.

" _Yes,"_ he drawled, rubbing his jaw in the darkness, "why the hell did you attack me?"

Kagura sighed, calming herself from the shock before and settling back down onto her bed, "maybe 'cause your creepy ass is breaking into my room at one am." She said with a glance at her bedside clock. Sougo simply snorted and Kagura continued, "why are you in my room anyway?"

She thought she saw the Sadist shrug as he sat down in her window ceil, "didn't I use to do this all the time?" It wasn't a question.

"When were kids, you haven't climbed in through my window since we were thirteen."

"Fourteen."

Kagura frowned, "fourteen." Sougo hadn't moved from his rigid position in the window and Kagura was starting to feel the tense air radiating off him, "did you fight with the Gorilla?"

Sougo was silent and Kagura waited for a moment before asking, "did stupid Hijikata do something again?"

This time the boy shook his head, "I just couldn't sleep."

Kagura waited for the following jibe such as "so I thought I'd watch how pig's sleep" or "your disgusting snoring was keeping me awake" but it never came so she simply sat in the tense silence the boy offered and watched him. As she did she noticed, something that she had never done before. She noticed the flaxen haired boy for the first time.

He was seated leaning against her window, not having moved a muscle since he had taken up the position, as he stared intently at her opposing wall as if he wished for it to move. She couldn't make out much else apart from the fact he was strangely still in his school uniform even at this time of the night and that his hair was slightly messier than usual but it was his demeanour that struck her.

She, unfortunately, was sure she knew everything there was to know about the stupid Sadist; his weaknesses, his shitty personality traits, even what insignificant things he found enjoyable but recently she'd found him becoming further out of her reach, as though he was changing rapidly and she couldn't catch up. She would never admit it but the thought slightly scared her.

It used to seem like the Sadist was as easy for her to read as a book, but lately these days somehow he seemed more and more confusing, like she didn't really even know him at all. Something she didn't like at all.

Especially tonight, when the Shadows crossed his face like that and made him seem ethereal.

Almost brilliant, even, in the soft moonlight, not that she'd ever tell him that.

After a few moments where Kagura simply watched the flaxen haired boy he abruptly switched his line of sight to her, "you should really lock that window."

Kagura frowned, "you were the one who broke in here!"

Kagura thought she heard him scoff but his weird stoic expression was still in place, "good night, China."

And with that he was gone. Kagura wasn't sure if she'd been dreaming but it didn't stop her rapidly beating heart or the smell of his clothes wafting through her room.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Relay**

After that weird moment last week where Sougo had climbed through Kagura's window the red headed girl hadn't been able to take her mind off the boy. Everywhere she went she'd see something that reminded her of the stupid Sadist, or hear a child's irritating laugh and think of him, or even worse she somehow found herself looking for him in every place she thought he may be. It was driving her insane!

So at the thought of competing against the idiotic brat at the annual school sports festival she felt rejuvenated, because surely all the attention she was wasting on the kid was due to him having one-upped her that night in her room. That had to be it! With this logic Kagura knew that if she destroyed the Sadist in every event they were directly competing against one another that she would get him and his stupid sad smile out of her head for good.

The day so far had been proving promising with her only having lost to him twice, once in the long jump and again in high jump, but she'd managed to beat him (even if it was close) in the 100m sprint, 200m sprint and the shot put. The Sadist was going down.

Besides the team events where the two enemies would be competing in the same team due to being in 3z together, the last event they had left to compete in was the boys vs. girls relay. They were competing in their grade and of course the Sadist duo, two of the most notoriously fit students in their year level, were competing. And not only that, they were both the anchor, meaning directly against each other for a match not only about personal pride but about the pride of their gender.

The two were lined up next to each other at their respective positions on the final spring. Sougo had been relatively calm, completely oblivious to the red headed girl's fiery spirit and occasional fierce eyes directed at him, entirely in his own world of concentration. It wasn't until the gun went off and the race started that Sougo spoke to his opponent, "I know you've been trying to compete with me all day, more so than usual for some reason," Kagura began to object indignantly but Sougo ignored her and continued on, "but you're going to win this one."

Kagura scoffed, "and why's that, stupid Sadist?" The girl demanded, hands on hips.

Sougo smirked at Kagura just long enough for her to realise that he was planning something diabolical, "because you get too caught up in the competition with me and never pay attention to the bigger picture."

"Bigger picture?"

"Yeah, you're too busy focusing all you're attention on me, not that I mind."

"What are you talking abo-" Kagura began to ask until she heard her name yelled loudly by someone behind her. It was then she realised the race had caught up to them and she hadn't been preparing at all, while the entire time the Sadist was fully aware of this. She looked sideways quick enough to see the Sadist get the baton and run past her with what only could be described as a shit eating grin, not before she heard him yell out as he ran away "never take your eyes off me China!"

Kagura could only stare with her mouth wide open as the flaxen haired demon ran towards the goal, completely destroying any chances she had at regaining her precious pride. The two would draw again, equals, forever.

Not if she could help it!

The girl swiped the baton from her team mate aggressively and gave the hardest run of her life, not even attempting to overtake the Sadist but instead choosing to spear tackle him from behind and then get up quick enough to move over his prone body towards the finish line. It was technically a disqualification but the salty look on the Sadist's face was enough for her. Today, Kagura had won.

So why was she still being haunted by the Sadist?

* * *

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It's becoming more mature and serious than the previous chapters but it's finally that time!**

 **Hopefully the characters were still in character and please leave me a review they really do mean the world to me!**

 **Love always,**

 **Hils xxxxx**


	14. 13: Policeman and Yato

**After 8000000 years I'm back with a new chapter. I'm so sorry it took so long it's just as it always is, life is busy and I don't have time to write or do anything when I'm not at work other than Uni (which I should've been doing while writing this essay whoops).**

 **Anyway, as always please enjoy and please please please leave a review the comments and messages from you guys (on tumblr too) really gives me the motivation to keep writing this :)**

 **Thanks again and here you go! A semi dark and serious chapter this time!**

* * *

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Fate/Red**

Red had always been a colour that was present in her life.

Red like the colour of her hair.

Red like her families dress outfits.

Red like Kamui's tears the day of her mother's funeral.

Yes, red was the ever-present theme of her day-to-day life, the daily score to her background music.

However, red had also taken on a new meaning.

She'd once read a story about the red string of fate, the tether that ties you to every person you love in this world and ties them to you in return.

Kagura had many red strings of fate. One for Gintoki and Shinpachi, one for Tae, one for Soyo, Nobume, Madao, Catherine, Otose, Kyubei, Sacchan, Tsukki, Mayora, Gorilla and even one's for her estranged brother, father and long departed mother.

She knew there was even a red string tying her to the flaxen haired boy currently reading in front of her. She suspected this string was a deeper shade of red than any of those existing around it.

How else could you explain the intense tie she had to the stupid Sadist regardless of how hard she tried to escape him?

Red was the theme to her life even now.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Nurse/Hospital**

Sougo raced down the hospital halls searching for the room the nurse had told him he was in. He barged through the open door, out of breath and panting desperately, terrified of what he might find.

It wasn't the terrible situation he'd been imagining, but it wasn't far off.

Kondou was lying down prone and somewhat lifeless covered in bandages around his torso, looking utterly ragged. Hijikata was sitting beside him, his normally aggravating face hidden in his hands looking defeated.

Sougo stood in the doorway, unable to move any further, "what the hell happened?" he whispered forcefully.

Hijikata flinched but didn't look up from his hands; "a hostile shot him in the chest when we were apprehending a group of robbers."

Sougo clenched his jaw and moved swiftly towards Hijikata, grabbing him by the arm, "I know what happened, I'm asking what _the hell happened?"_ his voice had risen to a shout and he was having trouble controlling himself.

Hijikata met his eyes this time, steely glare still present in his eyes even in a moment like this. It pissed Sougo off.

"We failed. _I_ failed." Hijikata spat out, "we didn't see him until it was too late and Kondou he… he went down, he just went down _hard_."

Sougo looked away in disgust, "you should've been there to protect him. You should've-"

"I know." Hijikata's voice was final. "I know, ok?"

Instead of answering Sougo instead stood in front of his father figure's battered body and tried to take in his current state. It was foreign to him to see his normally larger than life father lying to helpless and _fragile_ thanks to one little bullet. It terrified him. He looked much too like _her_ the last time he saw her _._ The last time he ever saw her.

Sougo tore his eyes away at Hijikata's next words; "I swear to god I will kill that man when I get my hands on him."

"Not if I get to him first." The flaxen haired boy spoke flatly.

He'd always known he'd wanted to follow after Kondou and join the police force, but in that moment he'd never been so impatient or cursed his young age and inability to protect those he loved.

Sougo took up position in the seat next to Kondou where he stayed for the coming week.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Girl/friend**

On very rare occasions Kagura got to spend an entire day in bliss, completely free of any stress her troublesome family, terrible grades or insane friends caused her.

On rare occasions she was blessed enough to spend an entire day simply being a child with her best friend Soyo.

That was how the day had begun. Kagura feeling more than blessed by the fact she was currently parading around the town with her beautiful and amazing best friend (and her best friends rich older brothers credit card) without a single sign of any obstacles. And just when Kagura felt completely and utterly happy it all went up in flames.

The flames on this particular day happened to be in the form of a long red plait and a sinister smile.

"Kagura I was wondering when I would run into you next, my darling sister."

Kagura snarled at her brother, not only because he was blocking their way to the restaurant they were about to stuff their faces at, "I thought you'd finally gone back to whatever hell you came from. Now go make that reality, uh-huh."

Kamui kept that infuriating and creepy smile firmly in place, "have you forgotten we're both from that place you call hell, _sister._ "

"I know your stupid brain is incapable of understanding that that place is hell, but it is hell to me, Kamui."

"That's no way to refer to your home," Kamui bent down low and spoke softly but dangerously, "it seems like you've forgotten all the things I taught you there, like your respect for me."

It was at this point that Soyo, bless her soul, had intervened and told Kamui, using language a princess should never utter, to go away.

Kamui then turned his attention on her; something Kagura was dreading hoping her brother would leave without noticing her friend.

"And the princess here, I was wondering when I would have the pleasure of meeting you again."

"Go home, Kamui!" Kagura spat.

Kamui's eyes didn't leave Soyo's, "I was planning on letting your little friend here stay out of the fight with her brother, but since you've made my acquaintance I may reconsider."

Soyo had steeled since her last encounter with Kamui and didn't flinch nor budge under his heavy gaze.

Instead Soyo simply smiled the sweetest and clearly fakest smile Kagura had ever seen and said, "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to reject your offer there."

Kamui raised a thin eyebrow, "it wasn't an offer, you do realise? But I'll bite, why?"

Soyo kept that smile in place, "I simply do not associate with those who distress my friends." She stated, then dropped her smile and continued, "or those people who have no place in this society."

Kamui dropped his smile in return, "and what kind of person would that be?"

Soyo's eyes were hard and full of malice, "a good for nothing thug."

Kagura couldn't help it, she burst out in laughter. While having been terrified of her brother moments ago she suddenly found him harmless like a little kid thinking he could take on the bully at the playground.

Soyo was her hero and man did she go right back to feeling blessed.

"Well, that was enough for today, uh-huh!" Kagura exclaimed, smile crossing her face while her brother death glared the two of them simultaneously, "we'll be heading off now, _brother._ I hope it's at least one-hundred years before I see you again."

"I wouldn't count on it." Kamui said lightly as the two girls turned to leave food forgotten for the time being.

Kagura was too full of love for her best friend.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Broken/wits end**

The shattering of the bottle echoed through out the dark neighbourhood as the flaxen haired boy stumbled his way up the stairs of the apartment complex.

He finally came to a stop in front of the second most familiar place to him on the Earth, apart from his long forgotten home with his beloved sister. It was _her_ door.

Sougo collapsed on her doorstep, knocking his head against the doorframe as he did so, and rested his weary head in his hands.

He was drunk.

He wasn't sure how or why it had happened he'd just been so unbelievably tired of it all and he'd somehow found himself in some unknown bar with unknown people trying his hardest to drink whatever emotions were suffocating him away. It had started with a harmless drink to take his mind off the situation and had turned into a full-blown pity party for one.

The sound of the latch being removed on the door alerted him to the person about to open the door he was currently resting upon. However, in his drunken state he did not have the foresight to move and ended up sprawled across the ground in a sorry state.

The bright azure eyes that stared down at him were wide and confused, clearly not having expected a drunken eighteen-year-old boy to be sitting at her doorstep.

"Sadist, are you drunk?" Came the musical voice he yearned to hear so often.

"Hi China" Was the response she got.

Said 'China' sighed, clearly exasperated with the state of the boy, and muttered something about 'stupid drunks always finding me'.

"What are you doing here, Sadist?" She asked, "Your house is next door."

Sougo laughed, of course he knew where his house was "I know."

She squinted her eyes at him, "so you're here because?"

He stared at her form now he'd managed himself into a sitting position. She was wearing her pink bunny pyjamas that he made fun of so often but secretly liked. Her hair was a mess and her unfocused eyes suggested she'd been asleep before his arrival.

"I wanted to see you."

Kagura stared back dumbfounded, "you wanted to see me?" Sougo simply nodded. " _Alrighty then,"_ Kagura continued sarcastically, "well now you've seen me so you can go home."

Sougo frowned, shaking his head "can't."

Kagura growled in exasperation, "why? Why are you even here?"

"I just started walking and somehow ended up here."

"So you can just start walking again and go home!"

"I can't." Sougo repeated.

"And I'm asking you why?" Kagura was clearly agitated now.

Sougo stared into her blue eyes, oh how he loved her eyes the most, it felt like he was drowning in them.

"There's no one there."

That's when Kagura remembered. The Gorilla had been severely injured during a shoot out earlier that week, he was ok but it had been pretty dicey for a while there. The Sadist had come to school like nothing was wrong so Kagura kind of forgot about it but of course he was upset about it. She'd be distraught if it was Gintoki.

"What about Hijikata?"

"Hospital" was all Sougo said.

Kagura stared at him for a few moments longer, considering. He looked so fragile.

She'd seem him upset and sad before, sure, plenty of times, but this was the first time she'd seen him so _fragile._ The first time since Mitsuba had died and left Sougo completely alone and scared.

Even though he complained about him it was obvious the Gorilla and Mayora were the only family he truly had left.

She sighed, Gintoki wasn't home – god knows where he was – and it was almost morning anyway. "Do you want to come in?"

Sougo's head whipped up so fast, thinking he'd imagined those sweet six words the heartbreakingly beautiful girl spoke.

It was only once seeing those azure eyes again, this time gentle and sympathetic, that he realised it was true.

Sougo nodded his head and the girl turned around, returning inside without a word.

As Sougo followed the bunny girl inside that night he knew for certain that wherever she was, was where his home was now.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Photograph**

It was two days after Sougo's drunken sleep over that Kondou was finally released from the hospital. Sougo and Hijikata brought the weary man up the stairs of the apartment complex, mindful of the eyes that trailed the journey.

It was there that Kagura, Gintoki and the Shimura siblings waited for the large man and his little family to welcome him home.

In true Kondou style he began blubbering upon seeing "Otae!" and was swiftly pushed back into the smaller men behind him who groaned under his weight. Shinpachi then began shouting about how everyone should calm down because Kondou was injured while Gin began fighting with Hijikata for no apparent reason. Sougo stood amongst it all with a look of complete disinterest and that was what set Kagura off.

Kagura began to laugh. Loudly.

Everyone immediately stopped in their tracks and turned to the orange haired girl as she laughed a genuine, and carefree laugh that erased the seriousness of the situation. Gintoki was first to join in, then one by one the others all began to laugh with the youngest member of the group. Sougo even cracked a smile at the sight of the China girl laughing so honestly.

"You're an idiot even when you're half dead, Gorilla!" The China girl wailed loudly.

In that moment every single person on the landing was truly grateful that Kondou was alive. Sougo was not only grateful that Kondou was alive but he was also grateful that he himself was alive, something he didn't experience all that often.

It was then that Zaki, ever poor timing, stumbled up the stairs with Kondou's belongings and asked loudly, "Chief, why do you have so many pairs of underwear from two weeks?"

Everyone glared at the unfortunate soul who suspiciously ended up flat on the ground after Hijikata moved positions.

"Chief, I have the camera you wanted." A incapacitated Zaki strangled out.

"Camera?" Asked Sougo.

Kondou grinned widely, wincing slightly at the movement, "while I was in hospital I realised I don't have any pictures of everyone!"

Gintoki muttered under his breath so that only Kagura and Shinpachi heard, "because you're so ugly no one wants pictures with you."

Everyone looked in confusion when Gin doubled over for no apparent reason while Shinpachi and Kagura ignored him smiling.

Kondou continued with a confused look, "so I think we should take a picture now."

Hijikata frowned, "but you're covered in bandages."

Kondou shook his head, "it's not about looks Toshi," he drawled out the name like he was talking to a child, "it's about the people I love."

Kagura gagged and Yamazaki sat up suddenly with tears in his eyes, "Chief! I love you t-"

Kondou, completely ignoring the other man continued, "so let's get Zaki to take a picture of us all gathered here today."

Yamazaki's face fell instantly, "so that's why I'm here. Of course. Always the invisible man." He began rambling about anpan shortly after.

While some of the group gathered were very resistant to the idea, namely Gintoki and Sougo, eventually everyone gathered into position around Kondou while Yamazaki pointed the camera at them.

"One, two, three." Came Zaki's deadpan counting.

Later Kondou gave them all a copy of the picture, he clearly didn't know what a digital camera was but Kagura thought it was nice to have a hardcopy photograph sometimes.

The picture, showing a very happy girl surrounded by those she considers her family, was something she would treasure. She placed it in a frame that now sits on her bedside table; right next to the pink ring another man from that family gave her.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

* * *

 **Kind of cheesy end there I know! But please leave a review if you liked it and hopefully I'll have something up again sooner this time!**

 **Love always,**

 **Hils xxxxxx**


	15. 14: Warrior and Survivor

**I'm back! This time within two months for the first time since I started this story lol. Better late than never!**

 **Things are starting to get real now, therefore I am now beginning the wind up towards the end! Never fear there are still at least five more chapters just know that from this point onwards I will be tying up loose endings, resolving some of my hanging plot lines (Kamui, the school trip, our main couple of course). I'm also going to be adding a few random prompts for other couples just because this story has mainly focused on our two mains the whole way through and I'd sort of like to explain or at least mention some of the other characters in this story before I finish up! Anway here we go!**

 **For warning, I've harassed poor Kondou this chapter. A lot.**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gintama bbys.

* * *

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Video games**

Kagura wailed in despair, as her character died for about the eighteenth time while the boy next to her showed no hint of even the slightest emotion.

"No! You were too young!" The girl cried at the television.

"I didn't think it was possible to be worse than Zaki at this game," started the Sadistic boy in a flat tone, "but you're absolutely horrendous at this."

Kagura whipped her head in his direction and glared, "it's not my fault! You must be cheating!"

Sougo made no change in his expression apart from a faint look of pity, "I am not cheating, you're just useless."

"You are! Give me your remote!"

"No."

"Give it to me!" Kagura lunged towards the other teens remote and the two began fighting over it, gripping each other's clothes, hair and just about anything they could get a hold of.

"Piss off, China." The boy spoke calmly, pushing her head aside with his knee.

"Not until you swap remotes with me!" She retorted, grabbing wildly at his right arm.

"It won't make a difference."

"Then why won't you just swap with me?"

At this point Kagura managed to grab onto the remote, causing Sougo to push her to the ground with his own body pressing against hers to keep her locked in place.

The two teens stayed like that for a moment, catching their breath, before Kagura noticed the position they were in.

Sougo's hands were wrapped around her wrists, holding them in place next to her head, the rest of his body pressed dangerously against hers.

Kagura, indignant and angry, began to tell the Sadist to get off her but something about his eyes caused the words to die in her throat.

Sougo had an unreadable expression; one she hadn't seen before nor could put a name to, as he watched her closely with his dark red eyes. Kagura didn't know what was going on but she began to feel more and more anxious underneath his stare, along with something else. Angry? Scared? No that wasn't it. It was more…

Before Kagura could finish her train of thought Sougo abruptly closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pushed himself quickly off the red headed girl, returning to his previous position. He then picked up his abandoned remote control and stated, "I'm not swapping remotes with you just because you've got no talent for something as simple as this." Completely disregarding their position five seconds prior, seemingly preferring to pretend it had never happened in the first place.

Kagura wasn't sure why this bothered her, but it did. Immensely. The girl was still shaken up from the weird expression she'd seem on the sadist's face moments ago and was unable to ignore the way her heart had sped up when his body had been over hers.

What was that?

"China, are you playing or not?" The boys voice snapped her out of her thoughts and instead of voicing them she decided to do what she did best.

"Get lost, you stupid Sadist!" She cried as she picked up her remote and hoped he hadn't noticed how red her face was.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Pipe**

"You smoke so much I'm convinced I'll be a young widow."

Tsukuyo turned to face the man behind her, leaning back against the balcony of the landing. His unusual silver hair always seemed to glow in the moonlight, his grey eyes reflecting playfully behind their usual half lidded stare.

"Yeah?" she asked as he came to stand beside her, "you'd be glad. You'll be able to go back to stalking that weather lady guilt free."

"As if I ever stopped following Ketsuno Ana, my love for her is eternal." Gintoki muttered under his breath.

Tsukuyo chose to ignore his poorly executed joke and instead turned to face the street below them.

"Thinking about 'him'?" Gintoki asked absently. 'Him' referring to her master, the closest thing she'd ever had to a father, Jiraia.

Tsukuyo remained stationary, puffing out a bit of smoke, "Why? Are you thinking of 'him'?" The him she spoke of referred to a different him that Gintoki asked about, but it held the same meaning.

Gintoki laughed, "nothing sinister, just wondering what he'll think of you when you meet in hell. It'll be soon judging by how much you've smoked today alone."

Tsukuyo elbowed him in the ribs, "hell? Why not heaven?"

"In what world would a drunk terminator make it to heaven?"

Gintoki doubled over harshly as Tsukuyo apparently did more than elbow him this time.

After a moment he stood up again, bringing his face level with hers so he could look into her eyes, "I can tell he's been on your mind for a while now."

Tsukuyo held his gaze calmly, but smiled ruefully at the gesture, "I'm fine. I promise." Gintoki didn't seem convinced so she rested her forehead against his, "I hardly ever think about him anymore. I haven't felt the need since I met you."

Tsukuyo could tell he knew what she'd meant by those words, thinking of those first hard months they'd know each other in which she'd been severely affected by Jiraia and his abuse.

Gintoki stood back to full height and smiled lazily, indicating he was apparently satisfied with her answer. "Good, I was getting sick of the smell of smoke and incense down there."

"Is that right?" Tsukuyo asked, blowing smoke directly in his face playfully, "well being next to ya like this every once in a while," Gintoki began coughing at the direct exposal to Tsukuyo's smoke, "and blowing smoke in ya face is enough to make me happy."

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Boundaries/Dangerous Territory** / **Unsettling Revelations** / **A Moment in Time**

Sougo liked to push her boundaries.

Boundaries Kagura had carefully constructed after years of neglect, abuse and harassment from those she loved. Kagura's boundaries existed to protect her heart from abandonment. Kagura's boundaries were something no one had ever managed to cross, apart from maybe Gintoki and Shinpachi. But that didn't mean that Sougo didn't love to see how far he could go before she snapped.

Sometimes, after pushing her _just_ far enough but not _too far_ Sougo found himself in dangerous territory, which often neither of them knew how to navigate. Not without having unsettling revelations about their feelings for each other anyway.

Sougo had long accepted he was in love with the vivacious China Girl.

She, however, had not even come close to acknowledging the growing feelings Sougo suspected she had for him. But the more he pushed, the more he saw them.

For now, at least, she wasn't going to admit anything. This didn't bother him however, because at these moments where he pushed her boundaries the two of them seemed frozen in time and there was nothing he liked more than spending a moment alone with the China Girl.

Even if it ended with a black eye.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **Plan**

"Leader, are you in position? Over."

"Yes. Over."

"Ok. Target is in place, get ready on 1, 2, 3!"

When Zura shouted three over the walkie-talkie Kagura had stolen from Hijikata's police car Kagura jumped out of her hiding place behind the door and began shooting foam balls at the bedridden Kondou.

"Ouch!" Cried the Gorilla as the red headed girl pelted ball after ball mercilessly with her NERF gun. "China girl, why?"

"Muahaha, I am not China girl, I am Leader!" Kagura replied with glee as she executed a mock army roll across the floor.

"Leader!" Came the voice over the walkie-talkie, "I am on stand-by for your signal. Over"

Kagura didn't hear the second part of Zura's plea as she found her gun confiscated by a very irritated Sadist and herself in a headlock.

"What are you doing?" Sougo asked in the same flat tone he always used, apparently unsurprised by the situation at hand.

"I'm taking out the evil Gorilla who threatens this country's honour!" Kagura continued in the same grandiose tone she used previously. "Come in, Agent Paws, I need back up! Over"

Sougo maintained his grip on the struggling girl as he pried the walkie-talkie from her hands and tossed it aside. The action caused Kondou to squeak out, "Sougo! That's expensive!"

It was then that Zura burst into the room holding another NERF gun and began shooting at the very irritated Kondou and now riled up Sougo.

The Sadist released his grip on Kagura suddenly, turning to face the new guest, "Katsura, you've dared to come back, eh?" The red headed girl backed away from her captor recognising the look in his eyes.

Zura frowned, seemingly forgetting he was holding a mock weapon, and asked, "who are you?"

Sougo then broke his deadpan façade in favour of a bloodthirsty grin, "I guess you don't recognise me, since the last time we saw each other I was thirteen, but I won't be beaten again."

Zura made an 'O' shape with his mouth, "Oh, the little boy Kondou had with him."

"I'll report you for trespassing!"

"To who? That policeman is pretty useless if you ask me!" Zura pointed at the bedridden Kondou.

"Shitty Hijikata will do the job, I guess!"

"Hijikata couldn't catch an old lady with a walking stick!"

"That lady was deceptively strong and Hijikata had diarrhoea!"

"Hah! Hijikata is nothing more than a tax robber who attacks old ladies!"

"He's also a man with a disgusting fetish for mayonnaise and cancer sticks, don't you dare forget that!" Sougo turned towards Kagura who had been yanking on his shirtsleeve for a while now, "what is it?"

Kagura pointed at the door wordlessly where Hijikata himself was standing, emitting a very dangerous aura.

"Well, Leader I must go." Zura said as he escaped from the room through the window.

"Just who…" Hijikata began in a menacing tone, "is a grandma beating, cancer loving, useless officer?"

Sougo responded unfazed, "you."

Then all hell broke loose.

.

~~o~~o~~

.

 **A Place to Belong/Future**

Shinpachi could put up with a lot. And he means, _a lot._ But a bored and irritable teenage girl putting mayonnaise in his last remaining pair of boots that she _hadn't_ vandalised was the _last straw._

"Kagura!" Came the loud call from a very distressed pair of glasses as he stormed into the red headed girls bedroom holding his destroyed shoes. "Why?! Why can't you just leave my shoes alone?"

The girl looked up vaguely and shrugged, "I was bored."

This only fuelled Shinpachi's fire as he waved the shoes around, "I don't care if you're bored!" He wailed, "you've been a nuisance all weekend!"

Kagura sat up scoffing indignantly, "I have not been a nuance, uh-huh!"

"It's _nuisance_ and yes you have!" Shinpachi continued, "it was one thing to straighten Gin's hair while he slept, but you've been harassing poor bedridden Kondou all week, destroyed _all_ of my shoes and now you've stolen Hijikata's mayonnaise to ruin my _last pair of shoes!_ GIVE ME MY SHOES BACK!" Shinpachi seemed to snap at the end of his rant.

"Hey!" Kagura piped up, "Gin-chan liked it when I straightened his hair! He thought god had finally listened to his prayers and given him straight hair!" The girl completely ignored the rest of his rant and only heard the first part Shinpachi concluded.

It was at that moment, fed up, Shinpachi walked over to the girl and all but pushed her out the door and onto the landing.

"I don't care if Okita is away, go find someone else to harass!" Were his last words as he slammed the door in her shocked face.

Kagura glared at the door, "fine! But I'm going to tell Boss Lady where you keep your stash of porn books!"

The girl then stormed off the landing in a huff and found herself wandering the streets of their neighbourhood alone. The dark never bothered Kagura, anyone suspicious lurking in the shadows had more to fear from her than she had from them but that didn't erase the boredom and loneliness she felt.

 _No, not loneliness_ she thought, _I just really want to punch that Chihuahua in the face is all._

It was at that moment that she found herself in the nearby park the sadist and herself often frequented. Sitting down on one of the swings Kagura sighed, "who am I kidding? I am lonely without the Chihuahua here to annoy." She muttered to herself aloud.

Her behaviour the past few days had been beyond extreme, at one point she'd even shaved off one of the Gorilla's eyebrows while he struggled from his bed. That _might_ have been a tad too far even for her.

Why she found herself sitting alone in the park on a Monday night when they had had the day off school was for the same reason she'd done that.

She didn't know what to do when the sadist wasn't around.

Why did he have to go look at universities anyway? Wasn't he going to spend the next four years there? Why would he want to be there before he had to be? She was glad at first to have a sadist free weekend and that he had taken the annoying mayonnaise king with him (leaving her with an opportunity to ransack his collection of rare mayonnaise's) but she didn't realise how boring it would be without them around.

She sighed again, by the time she got home Gin-chan would probably be asleep; Shinpachi would've gone home and the residents of their apartment building all turning in for the night.

 _How boring._

Kagura shivered as the snow picked up and decided it was time she went home to her boring household for the evening. Maybe she could con Nobume into getting donuts with her, the girl was always up for donuts.

"What's so interesting Pig Girl? Got your period on your pants and you're too embarrassed to move?" The irritatingly familiar voice came from behind her.

"What was that you stupid Sadist?" She yelled of reflex more than anything, pushing herself off the swing quickly and spinning around to see the figure standing behind her.

The snow had picked up since she'd gotten to the park and it made it almost impossible to see him, but she could tell. Sougo was grinning, not his shit eating 'haha I destroyed you' grin but truly grinning gleefully, a thing he rarely did except when something _really_ good happened.

Kagura realised then that she herself sported a wide mouthed grin, making it hard to form the words "welcome home."

The Sadist nudged his head in the direction of their shared destination, "come on, let's go home."

And Kagura followed him without a complaint, secretly happy that he too thought of this park, this street, this building as his home.

As his place to belong.

* * *

 **Cheesy ending again but I don't care!**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review I got so many reviews last chapter it made me so happy! I'd love to see more as I go through the serious parts towards the end here as you'd expect they're a lot harder to write than the silly prompts! Anyway, please review and honestly let me know if there's any character or setting you'd like me to write about before the ending!**

 **Thanks as always,**

 **Hils xxxxxxxx**


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